Spindel shaper and flooring

[tmbrcruiser]

Can a spindle shaper be used to end match flooring? If it is possible would the process be slow or somewhat productive?

[venice]

Yes. It can make sense for small production runs.

But you want to use a solid sliding table with a clamp and all to make it somewhat productive and safe. Maybe some rollers to support, depending on the lenght of the boards.

Productivity would depend on your equipment, setup and material. Make sure your shaper has enough HP since cutting cross grain takes more power than cutting with the grain. A stock feeder would be a big help also(not for endmatching).

Best and have a nice weekend.

venice

[MikeON]

I've done this with a 3HP shaper.  Cut the ends first because there will likely be chip out, which will be milled off when you do the long edges.

[bluthum]

I have successfully done this as well. Shorter pieces  can be done using a power feeder, real long pieces are harder even hand feeding. I've also used a biscuit joiner and biscuits for longer wider boards. It makes installing a tiny bit slower but speeds up the milling.

[tmbrcruiser]

Thank you guys for the feed back.

[Glenn Ohman]

Does it really pencil out/is it necessary to end match flooring? For smaller outfits I would think not...

Glenn

[venice]

Depends on your market and customers i guess. Doing it for your own projects, why not. Doing the small project the big guys dont care about(and a customer willing to pay for your service). Yes.

Going commercial with a spec home builder as an customer in mind? Not at all. 

But, beeing able to endmatch flooring boards, panelling or the like, opens a whole lot opportunities to market those boards that are shorter than desired... Give it a thought.

At the end it is a numbers game related to your market. Your equipment, your market, your customers, your market, the money around...   Not to mention your skills as a salesman.   

I've seen guys finishing a couple houndreds sm of oak floor with a handplane to give it i rustic look. And they made money on it...

venice

[Cazzhrdwd]

I've done it with a jig that I put an air clamp on. Most shapers have a grove that takes a slide you can bolt to the bottom of your jig. One thing you had to do was use a piece of flooring on the side support of the jig where the end could slip into, that kept it from having tear out. It had to be changed from tongue to groove.

I used carbide dedicated inserts and they didn't last long because cutting end grain is hard on knives. A sliding table shaper would be the best for it though.

Eventually I quit endmatching. It took more time then running the actual flooring.

[teed]

Here is an example where you run two pieces at the same time, with the lower cut tongue and upper with groove.
So you just flipping boards and no need to change knives when you run both sides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w39GWepfcSc

[Cazzhrdwd]

That is very nice!

I did notice though that his end match was a bit off. Wonder if it was because the head was too high/low or was the flooring a bit thick/thin? *DanG I hated running flooring!

[teed]

Looks like both are wrong in the same direction, so I'm guessing that the cutter was too low

[ozarkgem]

Is it really necessary to have a T&G on the ends? Maybe if it was 8" wide but 4"?