Shop Fox - W1702 3hp Shaper (Rating: 5)

I love this shaper. And it would be even better with a power feeder on it.

I have both 3/4" and 1" spindles for this machine. Because most of my shapers use the 3/4" spindle that's what I use with this machine. It has plenty of power to handle common profiles associated with cabinet door making and I have not been able to slow this machine down. I prefer the fence design to most other Taiwanese/Chinese machines. To get it perfectly parallel to the miter slot I just have to tap the fence housing to the right or the left a little. I prefer having wooden fences to metal but it would have been nicer if the fence was a little taller on this model.

For start up cabinet businesses this is a great machine. I think later on though you'll want to move to a 1-1/4" spindle and a stronger machine to profile a little quicker with less chatter marks.

For hobby work I think I would actually just get the Shop Fox 2 hp machine to reduce the amount of space used and it can pretty much do the same thing. However, you can't really go wrong with either machine.