Cool Tools: Shaper
A shaper is a tool that is used to "shape" wood with a rotational cutter. It is very similar to a router table, but typically has more cutting power and uses bigger cutting tools. We use our shaper for making ukulele necks, and for making dulcimer scroll heads.
In this video, I am using the shaper to roughly shape a ukulele neck. This tool can throw out a lot of chips, so I am wearing a full face shield along with ear protection.
Front view of the shaper. The wheel in front is for raising and lowering the cutting tools. The little handle on the left locks the tool in place.
A close up of the setup I use to cut ukulele necks. This is basically a big round over with a guide bearing below it to ride up against my jig.
The extra cutters, spacers and bearings we have for the shaper. We can mix and match, stack and just generally combine these any way we want to come up with new shapes. For a sense of scale, the bright red cutter on the right side is about 5" across!
