Are you interested in woodwork? If you want to pursue a career in woodworking, then it’s important to select the correct tools for the job. When you want to start your career in woodworking, you may be about two tools one is wood shapers and the other is wood routers. These two tools work almost same, but they still have some intrinsic properties for which they are unique from each other. This article is going to help you to compare the two.
Before we go into the distinctions between wood shaper and router, let’s start with a simple understanding about what these two devices are and what they can do.
What is Wood Shaper?
In North America, a wood shaper is referred to simply as a shaper, while in the United Kingdom it’s known as a “molder”. Wood shapers are huge machine which comes with a table and a vertically and upwardly moving circular spindle through the table. The cutting heads that mill wood stock profiles are powered by this spindle.
These machines can accurately and effectively cut grooves, dadoes and many more designs inside stock areas and across the edges.
To make attractive forms on wooden stock and scooping out applications these two machines are wonders such as bowl making.
What is Wood Router?
A wood router is one of the most basic routers. It’s a hand-held tool that contains a spindle that powers a cutter and can be used to hollow out wood stock along with cutting grooves and patterns.
Naturally, these portable machines must be held with the stock underneath. However, a router table has a spindle facing up as well as a table to sit on the wooden stock.
Routers are suitable for small jobs, making little patterns or grooves. They’re also handy because they’re so lightweight and portable. To work on the wood it is necessary to locate the stock on a place, buckle it down, and then position the router with the spindle pointing down.
Wood Shaper Vs Router: The Differences
Affordability:
A plunge router, including a lift, tabletop, fence, and hold-down at work, can cost more than 850 USD when compared to a shaper. 22USD and above is required for replacement bits.
A shaper is as cheap as 365USD or as expensive as 5,199USD. Shaper cutters can cost as much as 209USD or more. Of course, the consistency and precision of a 365USD Shaper aren’t bad either.
Wood shapers are more expensive than routers due to their greater functionality. Furthermore, wood shaper bits and accessories are more expensive than router bits and accessories.
Tooling:
Router bits have a significantly smaller diameter. This allows for the completion of smaller, more delicate projects. Because router bits have a smaller diameter compared to shaper cutters, they have considerably higher rotations per second. This enables the cutter to make more contact with the wood, resulting in a considerably cleaner cut. Wood shapers use bigger and stronger bits, unlike wood routers, enabling them to make bigger cuts and a wider variety of cuts than wood routers.
Power:
The amount of power available is one of the most important differences between wood shapers and routers.
Wood shapers use more powerful motors than wood routers, thus they’re better for large projects. Because of high power, a wood shaper can create similar cuts or designs in lesser passes than a router. A wood shaper will be able to get through massive, dense timber faster than a router when dealing with it.
Speed:
Wood shapers often function at slower rates or with fewer RPMs than wood routers. Despite running at a slower speed, a wood shaper has greater power than a router.
In simple terms, a wood shaper bit moves slowly compared to a router. Because of its higher power, the wood shaper is preferable for bigger tasks. To put it simply, a wood shaper can complete larger work more quickly.
Estimating:
Wooden routers are great for generating intricate designs and cuts, but they’re not the best for scaling. You must constantly measure and cut each cut by hand when using a wood router. While this enables for truly a kind work, it isn’t ideal for numerous cuts of the same pattern.
That being said, when it comes to making identical cuts over and over, wood shapers are a much better option due to their advanced nature. It’s faster and more efficient to use a wood shaper instead of a router to make identical cuts.
Cutters and Spindle:
Wood shapers utilize larger and more energetic bits than routers, which allows them to make larger and various types of cuts.
There are a large number of bits available which fit into a wood router and can be used in a wood shaper too. Wood shapers are designed more stationary and larger to execute various kinds of tasks in a woodworking shop.
Size:
A wood shaper will typically take up more space than a router table, though the case is not always same.
Noise:
Shapers are typically much quieter than routers. They’re also much more durable and have fewer vibrations than the shaper. This is because a shaper belt is driven and moves at a slower speed.
Heavy Machining:
A shaper is a machine for high-volume work, whereas a router is a hand tool for light-duty tasks. When we believe a tool is being pushed to its limits, it becomes not only detrimental to the final product but also dangerous. When undertaking heavy labor, a shaper improves both the quality and the safety of the job.
Cost Savings:
The cost difference between a shaper and a router was discussed before. It’s impossible to say which one is more cost-effective. Time, on the other hand, is money, as everyone who works in a business knows. A large amount of time can be saved whenever the shaper is set up to send the stock through once rather than three or more times, not to mention the setup time.
Changeability:
Among the most significant advantages of utilizing a wood shaper is that it offers reversibility. But, the spindle of a router normally only rotates in one inconvenient direction.
However, most of the wood shaper can be reversed, which allows the spindle to move in both directions.
Split Fence:
Another advantage of using a wood shaper is that almost every wood shaper comes with a split fence. Which helps with accuracy and convenience of usage which is not available in the router.
Which one would be more useful? [In My Opinion]
A router is a piece of equipment to use if you are planning to deal with tiny wood stock, want to construct small and complex designs, want an easy-to-use instrument that won’t break the bank, and are content with something simple.
Need something big and powerful for repeated identical cuts and also which can handle large stock? Then, a wooden shaper might be the right choice.
In the end, both of these tools are fantastic to work with. It all depends on your job and personal preferences. However, a wood shaper is the greatest choice if you are planning to do lots of woodworking and want the most versatile tool.
