why such high rpms

[Leon]

You are very welcome, Bill! ;~)

[Jack]

Ear muffs and buy a shaper.

[John Grossbohlin]

I concur... I initially went with a 1.5 HP Jet floor model shaper and eventually replaced it with a 3 HP Grizzly. I found the shaper to be much quieter, and being heavier with a larger table safer to use with large stock than the router table. I could also spin much larger cutters and take deeper cuts with no bog down. The router and router table saw little use over the years as a result.

As I understand it, the surface speed of the shaper's cutter isn't much different than a router's bit once you take the diameters of the shaper cutters and router bits into account. This despite the seemingly large difference in spindle speed... As such, at least in theory, the quality of the cuts should be similar. In practice I suspect that the shaper wins due to lower vibration and consistent speed/power... especially if you use a stock feeder.

[whit3rd]

That's the key; the high speed of a router is most useful for small-diameter cutters (1/4") such as a shaper does not employ. Practically, though, the smaller cutters aren't much good on a router, either. I wonder if that's mainly because of chip clearance?

[Leon]

Actually the router really does not spin 1/4" cutters fast enough, for the best cut, either. Routers typically work better with 1" diameter bits at top speed and slower for the larger bits.

Practically, though,

Probably so and contrary to the way I would think, the small bits, 1/4", have better chip removal if they have only "1" cutting edge.

[Electric Comet]

have the ear muffs but maybe i buy some for the neighbors too

no more room for equipment so no shaper in my future

[Jack]

I always chuckle when I see how much cash people spend on routers, router tables, router lifts and all that. I say people because really, if you are a woodworker, you could build a router table in part of a morning. For the money they spend, they could buy a shaper for less, and it does a better job most of the time, has built in lift, and easy to change bits, and is much quieter.

[-MIKE-]

I'm with you. :-) I've gone through several versions of router tables. One was a cheap, manufactured one I got on clearance, for which I ended up fabricating new, much better top. I ended up selling it for a heft profit when I built a router extension for my table saw, which is what I use now.

But none of the versions produced better results than my first one which was made by simply screwing the router to a piece of melamine and drilling a whole through it for the bits.

[Brewster]

A table saw/router table is a great combination. The table saw fence can work double duty, space is saved, and some companies make cast iron router plates that replace/add directly and precisely to the table saws iron top. Most big plunge routers have height screws accessible from the bottom of the router (top of the table) making the purchase of a router lift redundant.

-BR

[-MIKE-]

This is the one I made.

[Electric Comet]

maybe everyone assumes that but in fact no one really questioned it

my routers are single speed so the bit size does not change the speed the router

so the router speed should be based on the bit dimensions from what you say

my lathe tops out at 3000 rpm and i have no problem turning half inch spindles

maybe some day i will experiment with router speeds

[Scott Lurndal]

Highly doubtful. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean that it isn't well understood.

And your point is?

Try spinning this in your handheld router at full speed (just don't do it where there is anyone you care about in the vicinity):

Apples are not the same as Oranges.

Your router spins at more than 5 times that speed.

[Puckdropper]

Electric Comet wrote in news:o6o0rn$u8o$3 @dont-email.me:

Machinists question it all the time. It's crucial to their work and tool life. Spin a bit too fast or feed too slow and bad things happen. Sometimes it's just less tool life, other times things birdsnest or stick and break things.

It may be at the speed most routers run the bit sizes are close enough to be in the "happy" or at least the "not discontented enough to do something about it" range. It may also be that woodworkers naturally adjust the feed rate to compensate for varying bit diameters. They probably don't even realize they're doing it!

Turning is a process of suddenly changing the direction of a piece of material, while routing is a process of slicing and accelerating a piece of material.

Puckdropper

[-MIKE-]

Hey, you know what? I think you've proven to all of us that you know everything better than any of us and anyone who has ever come before us.

So congratulations on that and I guess there's no more need for you to ask any more questions in here since you obviously already have the answers.

[Brewster]

Well built. Is that Formica/melamine on the top?

-BR

[-MIKE-]

Yes, melamine. It was leftover from some on-site worktables I built. It's great for assembly tables since glue doesn't stick to it.

[Leon]

Be careful, glue does stick to Melamine not as good as wood but my old right extension table had missing melamine. ;~)

[-MIKE-]

Perhaps it depends on the type of glue. All I know is that any time I do a glue-up on melamine and I get drips or swears on it, the smears peel right of and the drip pop off with the pass of a putty knife. And I do mean "pop" off. I know where goggles when doing that. :-)

[Leon]

Yes that works but if you have a piece of wood sitting on the melamine and glue got in between you might be sanding the melamine off of the wood after you pry it loose. I always cleaned mine and now Formica with a scraper.