Harbor Freight Industrial Shaper - Any experience?

[garymuto]

I recieved a mail flyer that listed the 1 HP industrial shaper for $289 on sale from $329. What caught my eye is that this shaper can also use 1/4" and 1/2" router bits. It also has a (quiet) Induction motor and a cast iron top. A bench dog top alone would cost more than this shaper with a motor, split fence and miter gauge. with the recent 15% coupon it becomes even more appealing. Does any know how well it works?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95668

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95668

[Tom Slick]

It looks like a glorified router table to me. 1hp is very small, palm router small.

If you can mount a different router to it then it might be a nice router table.

[garymuto]

It's got a 1HP induction motor and the spindle runs at 13,000 RPM. Seems good enough for panel raising and such with larger bits. I thought it might be a better atlernative to a MDF router table with a 2 HP universal motor router. I would not really use it as a shaper since I agree that it isn't really heavy duty. It seems at least as good as most router tables that cost more. I was just wondering if anyone had any hands on experience.

[Tom Slick]

IIRC induction motors only like to run at their rated rpm, universal motors are better under heavy loading. I'm not sure though. You can use a speed control on a universal motor and not an induction.

I thought panel raising required larger routers, 2.5+ hp.

[garymuto]

As far as I know you are right that induction motors don't have speed control. Thsi motor supplies 1 HP at 3450 RPM so it has more torque than a 2-1/2 HP router. Even geared up to 13,000 RPM it would have almost 2x the torque of a 25,000 RPM router. I totally agree that this is light duty and would require multiple passes for moulding or panel raising. I would not really call it a shaper. But it is a cast iron router table, lift and a motor. I thought it might be comparable to a decent router table with a mid size router. A cast iron table, a lift with micro adjust and a 3+ HP router would easily add up to $1000. For that much money, I can get a 2 HP Jet shaper. I just wasn't that interested in making that kind of an investment.
I'm probably going to pass on it since no one seems to have any first hand experience and I'm not feeling too experimental this summer.

[Bill in Buena Park]

If this isn't variable speed, 13,000RPM is above the rating for most horizontal panel raisers, which in my experience run 8000-12000RPM.