Shaper? Power Feeder?

I'm going to be making kitchen cabinets shortly for our house. My wife wants Shaker style which is nice and simple and relatively timeless. I have a router table and a cheaper set of shaker rail/stile bits and have made quite a few shaker doors in the past with OK results. I never seem to quite get the consistency at the joints I think I should be getting which means more sanding to make things flush, etc. With this bigger batch of doors I was pondering a shaper hoping to make things a little more consistent and potentially faster and without the annoying whine of a router for hours on end.



I've been casually checking Craiglist looking for used shapers. I found one last night and it includes a power feeder and the Freeborn shaper tooling I would need. Asking price is $1,000 for everything and seller says it all works. From the pictures it looks like it may have been used in a commercial setting.



I've never used a shaper before and am a little intimidated (safety wise) but it seems like a power feeder would make things safer and faster. I've done some searches on the forum to do some research and it seems like there are people in the "shaper camp" and in the "router camp". I don't think I NEED a shaper but if the price is right and it would make things easier/faster then it may be worthwhile. And if I buy used and decide it's not for me I can sell it for a small loss.



I know I'm not giving too many details but if everything checked out to work would $1,000 be an unreasonable price to pay? Anything in particular I should look out for?



thanks,

Mike

(7ef)

Shaper? Power Feeder?