The best option for created raised panels is through the use of the shaper. A shaper is much more powerful than a router and is meant for prolonged work. It is an industrial tool. The shaper cutters are great. One can switch and replace heavy duty cutters which have a long life span. The shaper is very powerful which, combined with sharp cutters will enable you to cut clean profiles in some of the hardest of woods.

The issue with purchasing a shaper is not only the cost but the need to purchase multiple cutters. With such a powerful and sometimes very expensive machine, it is only as good as the quality and the variety of cutters you have available. One thing is clear: purchase cutters for specific jobs. For instance, do you know there are an unlimited number of raised panel profiles? Imagine purchasing all of these cutters and then finding that just 5 of them are popular and chosen by your client. It’s best to have your client choose what profile they want first and then order the cutter, while building this fee into the cost of the project.

To view the variety of raised panel Shaper Cutters in stock at toolstoday.com, click here.

Just one example is my table saw. My one table saw. I use my table saw to rip as well as crosscut on boards too wide for my radial arm saw. The problem with using the table saw for both purposes is that I cannot use a dedicated rip blade to crosscut and cannot use a dedicated crosscut blade to rip. In doing so, I would not only get a chipped out edge, but it would be dangerous.

The best option for me was to get a combination blade. A combination blade is just as it sounds—it takes on the structure of both the rip and crosscut blades. I rarely use my wood right from the saw so the fact that the combination blade doesn’t give you the results of the dedicated blades doesn’t bother me.

I will say that when I’m ripping or crosscutting for an extended period of time, such as milling hardwood floors, I do take the time and change my table saw blade to a dedicated ripping blade. Not only will the dedicated blade give me cleaner edges but it allows the machine to work at full power.

There was one customer I had that lived in an old colonial home in central NJ; a historical and very well-kept beautiful home. The kitchen cabinets were made from old cherry with a gorgeous patina which showed that it lived a very long, yet delicate life. What wasn’t so beautiful, and the reason I was there, were the oak floor boards, which were in shambles, found directly under the sink; obviously damaged through many years of water falling from the sink.

The client needed to have these boards replaced without losing the integrity of the old floor. We decided immediately that factory boards were out of the question. What we needed to do was to locate old growth oak, cut boards from it, create a tongue and groove joint to match the existing boards, install it and then age it to match.

I took a couple of good boards that surrounded the bad ones to my shop. I planed my new boards to thickness and with my shaper and shaper cutters, I was able to get a very close match to the old tongue and groove joints. Just a few minutes of hand work and they were as good as the original boards.

When installing them, I had to keep just one side of one board without a tongue for the board needed to drop in. With a strong adhesive on the bottom, it would sit secure for another century or two.
Now was the fun part. Not only did I need to match the patina, but also the color and finish. After playing around with color pigments, I was able to get something very close. After coloring it, I took out my keys and began to throw and scrape them a bit until I gained the amount of wear which had built up for so many years. Good as new (or old)!

I spent some time working in a high-end shop located in a poor industrial area in Northern New Jersey. From the outside you would never guess that inside there was a set of ten chairs being produced to be sold for $66,000. I think this is way too much for anyone to spend on a set of chairs—but to be fair these chairs were made from Makassar ebony and had ivory inlay. To this day I remember that each chair required 12 mortise and tenon joints. For $66,000, there is no doubt that there was not one straight line on these legs, rails, or back.

When I was first hired, I joined a group of 6 highly skilled masters who all looked at me happily. It was then I knew that I was to be given the task to create 10 chairs with more than 120 joints…PERFECTLY.

The shop owner was a real collector of any machine that was at least 40 years old and weighed over a ton. “They don’t make ‘em like this anymore,” he would say. He was right. These beasts would run all day and work strong. There was one machine though, that didn’t work as well as the others—yes, it was the mortiser. The very machine that I would be working with to mill 120 mortises. They all needed to be the same and all needed to be perfect- there is no such things as “good enough” when the client is paying that much. There was a moment where I actually thought of cutting them by hand.

Setting up the mortiser for production was a challenge. I could tell by its location in the shop that this machine didn’t see too much action. I had no choice but to create my own clamping table with blocks so that each leg that went on the table was being cut the same exact way as the first and the last.

A few test pieces showed me that this milling wouldn’t even be “good enough.” Everything was outdated. The table wasn’t stable and the sliding mechanism was not accurate. Not to mention that the hollow-chisel mortising bits were not clean or sharp enough. At this point there was nothing to do about the mortiser; perhaps the shop owner would buy a new one with his $66,000. Until then, I was stuck with it. One option I had was to replace all the bits. So I took a break from the project to wait until they arrived in the mail. In the end the chairs turned out very good, but there is no doubt that without the new clean and sharp hollow-chisel mortising bits, the project would have been a train wreck.

First, I went to a few different mechanics with a list of models and asked them which ones they saw the least. Second, while driving around took notice of which older cars I saw on the road most often. But wait…what does this have anything to do with woodworking and why is this on a woodworking blog page?

Just like any new purchase, it’s important to do your research when buying new tools and accessories. Asking other woodworkers their experiences with their tools and reading reviews (just be aware that some are actually for promotion purposes) are important. Look at how the tools hold up. Go visit an established workshop whose purchases have been made years ago.

If you can get the chance, see how others store their tools because that is where they will be for most of their life. When taking care of one’s tools, storage is most important. Tools should be stored away from the elements, whether it is dust and moisture, so when they are taken out for use, they are in top shape. Though, as we all know, moisture will end up just about anywhere and through time can damage our drill and router bits… if they are made of steel.

But there’s another option available that gives your tools a much longer life span: Carbide bits; a material that is not only much harder than steel, withstands much higher temperatures, and last, does not rust. Certainly carbide is a much superior material for bits.

Therefore, when you look around other shops and ask which is best, you will come to the same conclusion as I have about the car I had just purchased. The models which are still seen on the roads after so many years and the models which are standing up to hard use is a great direction to go into if you don’t like going back and forth to the store for replacements.

I was eager and impatient but I knew, after seeing what had happened over time to my mentor, that it was important to take care of these safety issues, and would impact my quality of life.

Let me explain. From a young age I learned under a woodworker who created a shop in an oversized garage just off his home. For some reason or another there was no air quality control. In the winter, all the doors and windows were closed, even when operating a large panel sander.

There were no vacuum systems, no fine dust filters and no dust masks. Come to think of it, he never even wore ear or eye protection. He must have come from a different time where there was no awareness to the long term dangers.

Safety Goggles for Woodworking and Carpentry

Anyway, as he became older, it was clear that he was having breathing issues. Walking up a flight of stairs would take his breath away, as well as other basic daily rituals.

In the end, to see his deterioration was saddening. I am not sure how much one could blame his workshop environment for his condition but one must take this seriously.

If you are as eager to work as I am, then follow my lead and make sure your shop is outfitted for safety because you, just like me, want to be working in the shop for a long time…

For a long time, I was able to get away with cutting all of my Dado joints with a straight plunge router bit. Although not ideal, I was never able to justify the expense of purchasing this cutter.

I would simply mark the depth and width of the cut, set up the depth of the cutter accordingly and then set up a fence to get a straight line. To achieve the right width of the cut, I would then move my fence over to make the second pass.

Depending on the depth of the cut, each set up may need a couple of passes because of the (blank) of the router bit.

To be honest, it is quite hard getting perfect and identical results using a router when you need to replicate the same dado cut on numerous pieces.

I remember one occasion when I needed to make a project which called for a lot of Dado and rabbit joints. When I put together a quote for the client, I realized how much time I was billing for cutting these joints. It was unreasonable, and even a bit embarrassing to realize how long this project was going to take me. I needed to find a faster way.

I was able to solve this problem by using a stacked Dado cutter. I was working on a budget and tried to get away with the tools I had, but this time I was able to justify this expense. In the end I was able to cut perfect joints, replicate them a few dozen times, and do it in a fraction of the time.

I have to say that setting up the cutter for the first time was no picnic. It took more than a few test runs to make a perfect joint, but once I had it set up, it was a pleasure to work with.

Read about Stacked Dado Sets vs. Wobble Blades.

As a carpenter, we are often in the field when we realize that we either forgot something back in the shop, or, as we all do sometimes, an error was made and it needs fixing ASAP or to be completely re-built.

A friend of mine told me a story how he was at someone’s home installing crown molding which he machined out the previous day using a shaper. Of course he measured out the proper length needed to cover the perimeter of the room he was working on and brought what was needed.

As he was unloading and stacking the molding outside the house someone came by and stole one of the pieces. Going to a client with that is almost like telling a teacher that your dog ate your homework!

He was on the job and needed to move forward.

So he improvised. He had some extra stock in the truck and his portable router and table. Although the end result wasn’t exactly the same profile that he made with a shaper cutter, he was able to create a very close copy using a few layers of stock routed on site. He could tell the difference but when he showed the client, they could not see a difference.

This just goes to show that the portability of a router combined with the wide variety of router bits and profiles available makes it ideal for field work.

Read more about the differences between Router Bits and Shaper Cutters.

In these cases, people will often use putty or store bought dowels to conceal the screws. This can lead to unattractive elements in your piece, or cause you to waste time trying to find the best way to blend the imperfections caused by the screws.

There is another way.

Instead of trying to conceal the screw hole, why not make it a feature?

Plug cutters are really simple to use. Cut plugs are tapered, allowing for a tight fit when tapped into place.

How to Plug Your Screw Holes with Hardwood Scraps

1) First, choose a nice contrasting piece of hardwood from your scrap pile.
2) Second, make sure that the grain direction of the plug runs opposite the grain direction of the piece.
3) Use a countersink drill bit to make your screw hole.
4) Insert the screw.
5) Tap in your hardwood plug.

Not only will you have a beautiful contrast with the different woods, but also the smaller detail of grain direction will show your audience that you pay attention to details.

So if you need to use screws, don’t waste time trying to hide them. Create hardwood plugs from your wood scraps and work them into your piece.

Get more tips for using plug cutters

So like any normal person who gets a request from family, money is always an issue. How much do I charge them? Do I give them a family discount? If they really care about me, they would want to pay more for it, for being a woodworker is not always an easy way to make a living.

In the end, I calculated the time plus materials I would need to make their set of nesting tables. Lucky for me, I had made sure to create templates for the original piece- which had an ornate edge on each top. The template had been safely stored on a shelf for some time.

By taking a new work piece, tracing the edge of the template on it, rough cutting it on my band saw and then using my router with a flush trim router bit, I saved a good amount of time. Thus, saving time meaning saving money, I was able to make my aunt very happy by giving her a good price. So, in the end, it worked out for everyone.

I just have to make sure that she doesn’t go back to my other uncle (who paid for the original set) and tell him the price I gave her. He may feel he was overcharged…

The lesson to be learned; create and safe keep your templates; you never know when or if you will need them again!

Read about Flush Trim Router Bits and Templates for Circular Shapes.