William,

Great story. I was afraid that it was leading to a tragic ending. A large high speed shaper is an intimidating machine. I have an ancient, cast iron, 1/2" shaper. You can't get too many cutters for it any more, except if they have small enough outside diameter, you can use a bushing.

I got all the 1/2" cutter shapes I could find before they completely give up on making them. Between it and a router I make do.

I got the framework of a heavy workbench finished and in place last night. I have some old pallet planks that are five quarter Oak and in pretty decent shape. I started resawing to 1" last night. Once they are all resawn, I will then run the clean edge through the surface planer and then groove the edges for a spline. I expect this to make a really sturdy bench top. I expect it will look pretty nice too.

Have a great day,