Best Shaker Style & Beading Router Bit

[Bugsysiegals]

Most reviews I've read seem to indicate Whiteside is the preferred router bit manufacturer; however, their Shaker Style bit is non-adjustable.  I've found fairly good reviews on Freud's bit which is adjustable ... is this a good choice or do you have something better to recommend?

Freud Shaker Bit

Are Whiteside Edge Beading Bits any good?  Is there a common size to get?

Whiteside Edge Beading Bit

 

[sancho57]

Look at Infinity tools

 

[chrisrosenb]

Most reviews I've read seem to indicate Whiteside is the preferred router bit manufacturer; however, their Shaker Style bit is non-adjustable.  I've found fairly good reviews on Freud's bit which is adjustable ... is this a good choice or do you have something better to recommend?

Freud Shaker Bit

Are Whiteside Edge Beading Bits any good?  Is there a common size to get?

Whiteside Edge Beading Bit

I have never seen the Freud profile on an original piece of shaker furniture.

Whiteside are good cutters. 1/4" is standard for beaded face frames. I have seen 3/8" used.

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Thanks for pointing it out, I’d not noticed Freud isn’t square.

The thing about the Whiteside Shaker bit is it’s not adjustable and I’d be stuck with 1/4” panel, correct? That seems very thin and cheap to me ... am I wrong?

 

[chrisrosenb]

Thanks for pointing it out, I’d not noticed Freud isn’t square.

The thing about the Whiteside Shaker bit is it’s not adjustable and I’d be stuck with 1/4” panel, correct? That seems very thin and cheap to me ... am I wrong?

Original Shaker furniture had raised panel doors, with the raised part facing in.

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Interesting, I learned something new!  Do the rest of you use 1/4 panels and are you happy with them?  Seems thin but maybe still feels solid.

 

[tallgrass]

Original Shaker furniture had raised panel doors, with the raised part facing in.

How is that?

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Do the rest of you use 1/4 panels and are you happy with them?  Seems thin but maybe still feels solid.

 

[peter halle]

Original Shaker furniture had raised panel doors, with the raised part facing in.

How is that?

Actually that makes total sense to me at least.  The Shakers weren’t about ornamention in their furniture.  Rail and tile doors with floating center panels were made to deal with expansion and contraction issues of the wood and to prevent splitting.

So if you were going to make a cabinet door you would want that floating panel and that panel might have to be thickness planed to get it to work.  But if you only used the effort to plane the profiles that would end up going into the rails and stiles AND then mounted the panel flat side out then you would have less labor, any imperfections were inside the cabinet, and the look on the exterior of the cabinet was plain.

Just my opinion of course.

Peter

 

[John Beauchamp]

I have used 1/2" MDF with veneer for shaker doors. Don't need the veneer if painted. Strong, stable, and flat.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Original Shaker furniture had raised panel doors, with the raised part facing in.

How is that?

Actually that makes total sense to me at least.  The Shakers weren’t about ornamention in their furniture.  Rail and tile doors with floating center panels were made to deal with expansion and contraction issues of the wood and to prevent splitting.

So if you were going to make a cabinet door you would want that floating panel and that panel might have to be thickness planed to get it to work.  But if you only used the effort to plane the profiles that would end up going into the rails and stiles AND then mounted the panel flat side out then you would have less labor, any imperfections were inside the cabinet, and the look on the exterior of the cabinet was plain.

Just my opinion of course.

Peter

And sometimes the rough planed, raised, (inner) side of the panel was left proud of the frame.

 

[Bob Wolfe]

you can use any thickness of panel you want. Just trim the panel to fit the groove leaving whatever reveal you want on the show face. 
BW

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Any idea why they'd make raised panels just to put them in backwards?  I can only guess they had thicker material, no planers, and they simply trimmed the lips to sit inside the rails/styles?

 

[sancho57]

Bugs everything (well almost) was done by hand. So it makes sense to me to use rasied panels rather than flat panels, plus raised panels are more durable then the flat panels. Here a drawing I screen shoted from my Shaker Furniture book by Thos Moser

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Wow, never realized there was a book on that style, just thought it was a simple cabinet door design. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[sancho57]

Thos Moser Is a well know authority on shaker furniture. You will enjoy reading his book if your interested in that furniture. I for one and a huge fan of it. There is a series of 3 books with nothing but sketches/shop drawings you can get

 

[tallgrass]

Quote from: tallgrass on Today at 12:39 PM
Original Shaker furniture had raised panel doors, with the raised part facing in.

How is that?

Actually that makes total sense to me at least.  The Shakers weren’t about ornamention in their furniture.  Rail and tile doors with floating center panels were made to deal with expansion and contraction issues of the wood and to prevent splitting.

So if you were going to make a cabinet door you would want that floating panel and that panel might have to be thickness planed to get it to work.  But if you only used the effort to plane the profiles that would end up going into the rails and stiles AND then mounted the panel flat side out then you would have less labor, any imperfections were inside the cabinet, and the look on the exterior of the cabinet was plain.

Just my opinion of course.

Peter

WOW, I had not thought of that. I am a total shaker junky. I even have several early shaker peaces. This observation totally escaped me. It makes total sense. I am going to look into this evolution. The evolution of shaker design is fascinating.

 

[tjbnwi]

Original Shaker furniture had raised panel doors, with the raised part facing in.

How is that?

Referred to as a reversed raised panel.

Pictured is a reversed raised panel door, you can see how the faces look like flat panel on the exterior.

Tom

 

[Bugsysiegals]

So are you cutting them with raised panel bits and then just reversing them?  Are raised panel bits better than shaker panel bits since you can make two styles from one bit?

 

[tjbnwi]

So are you cutting them with raised panel bits and then just reversing them?  Are raised panel bits better than shaker panel bits since you can make two styles from one bit?

Yes, kind of....the cutter is set shallow (taking 1/4" off the panel) and the fence is not allowing full depth into the panel. You only need about 3/4" of tongue created by the bit.  My bit will cut into the panel about 1-1/2" if I set the fence back far enough to use the follower bearing.

The Shaker panel raising bit I have cuts a bevel instead of a curve. I can use either to achieve the same end result.

I don't understand the two stiles from one bit. I have at least 8 different door making sets, not counting the sets for the shaper.

Tom

Tom