Shaper Bit and Spot's Tale

Some of you old timers here might recall this post I made years back. For
the newer
folk, it's still quite relevant to the question about the shaper bit. <grin>
I'll also post the Haircut tale, if anyone's ever interested.

Nonny


Spot's Tale.

With a hobby of woodworking, I frequent a newsgroup called rec.woodworking
on occasion. There, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I recounted a very true
tale that
was both understood and appreciated by many fellow woodworkers.

Well, friends, let me recount a little tale to you that involves my new
Grizzly
shaper, a panel raising bit and an old cat that used to hang around a sunny
window
sill in my shop. His name was Spot.

For those of you who may not have yet played with a shaper, these are big,
floor-mounted tools
that can be likened to an 800 pound router. Most have
interchangeable spindles to handle different sized bits. Grizzly sells
theirs with
a very complete compliment of extra spindles of various sizes. The spindles
have a Morse taper for alignment, but are locked in place with a draw bolt
that is
inserted up from the bottom of the female Morse and into the male Morse
component.
This locks it down into the socket, so to speak Because of this, the
vibration of a bit will
not loosen the spindle and permit it to fly out of the socket..

One particular afternoon, I'd made all of the rail and style cuts for some
cabinet doors, and decided that it was time to see just how my new panel
raising bit from Grizzly would work. Unlike some panel raising bits, this
bit was BIG- over 5" across- and had a slight pitch to the three cutting
blades to direct airflow and chips downward. Being so big, it necessitated
me removing the 3/4" spindle from the shaper and inserting the 1".

Old Spot was my daughter's cat, and was absolutely fearless in the shop. He
would just perch on a wide window sill in the sunlight, watching outside for
birds or whatever else might catch a cat's attention. He simply ignored me.
Old Spot was an indoor "house" cat. Once my daughter went off to college,
Spot decided that he'd spend most of his days in the basement shop with me,
since that was where all the action was. He was always a welcome visitor
and companion. He always listened to me as I would "talk out" my plans for
the day.

On the particular day in question, I inserted the large spindle in the
shaper, and slid on the huge panel raising bit. Being intimidated of the
shaper in general, and panel raising bit in particular, I took good
precautions in seeing that the bit was firmly seated and that the retaining
nuts were tight.

Satisfied with my enterprise, I reached down and turned the shaper "on." At
that moment, as my fingers mashed the button, I remembered two things I'd
overlooked.

1) I hadn't switched the belt from the 10,000 RPM position to the 7,000
RPM position; and,

2) I had forgotten to insert the draw bolt to hold down the spindle.

With the sound of a jet engine, the shaper's 5-hp motor revved to full
speed. As it did, I watched in horror as the several pound- 5" panel
raising bit I had fastened so securely to the 1" spindle, rose magnificently
out of the shaper . . attached to the spindle itself. In a way, it looked
like a cross between a Frisbee designed by a madman and some "space toy"
that my kids might buy. Being of sound mind, I decided that the safest
place to be at that moment was lying on the floor with my hands over my
head. As the bit rose into the air, I dove for the ground.

Now, here's where old Spot comes into the tale-

It seems that old Spot had been "short taken" in the shop that afternoon,
and had decided that the pile of shavings beneath the shaper was superior to
running upstairs to his litter box. It had never happened before, and never
happened since, to the best of my knowledge. He had either ingested
something that didn't agree with him, or my wife may have given him one of
his pills for hairballs. It really didn't matter at that moment. . . as I
dove headfirst into the shavings and their semi-liquid content.

The shaper bit and spindle sailed slowly and magnificently over my head,
sounding like a jet engine, and crossed another 6' of shop before
crashing into a door. The door literally exploded, with one of the panels
and
style of the door shattered as easily as if they'd been hit with a canon.

When I rose to take stock of the situation, it was apparent that before I
could even begin to start cleaning up the damage, that I needed to change
shirts and shower. (My good wife later suggested that I probably should have
changed my shorts- but not because of the cat)

Spot lived another 2-3 years after that adventure, but finally succumbed to
Leukemia one equally cold afternoon. Even now when I look out Spot's window,
I
sometimes still think I see him there, but when I see the stain he left on
the floor of my shop, I don't miss him quite as much.


Respectfully submitted. . . . Nonny

--------------------------------------------------
From: "SonomaProducts.com" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 10:00 PM
Newsgroups: rec.woodworking
Subject: Question about using big panel raising bit

> I am going to be spinning a horizontial panel raising bit (with a back
> cutter) in my shaper with a router collet. It is part of a door set
> and is 3 1/4" across. It has three wings, the safety type with
> infilled sections between the cutters, In the past I always cut rustic
> type raised panels on the TS with a standing jig, used flat panels or
> just purchased doors premade.
>
> I am cutting pine panels and they are actually not glue-ups but wide
> 3/4" boards, a bunch of em.
>
> I plan to do the panels in two passes.
>
> I'll setup the fence so it is aligned with the bearing. Then before I
> run the first pass I'll attach some 1/8" ply to the face of the fence.
> Then I'll run all 4 sides of all panels cutting the raised profile
> almost complete depth. Then I'll remove the ply and run all the panels
> back through, trimming of the last 1/8" for a clean finish.
>
> Do you think I can hog out that much on the first pass? I'm thinking
> maybe make my daughter try to push through the first piece while I
> stand across the shop, ready to call 911.