A professional who sets up and operates single- or double-spindle shaping machine to cut grooves, rabbets, flutes, or pattern shapes on surface and edges of woodstock. Responsibilities include:

• Examines drawings, blueprints, or written orders to determine cutting pattern.
• Selects, installs, aligns, and adjusts cutterheads, guides, and jigs to make specified cuts and shapes, using handtools.
• Starts machine and feeds woodstock (with grain of wood) into cutterheads, holding and pressing stock against guide or jig to obtain specified cut.
• Measures shaped stock to verify conformance to pattern, using rule, calipers, or gauges.
• May hold and push stock into cutterheads without aid of jig or guide.
• May sharpen and mount cutting knives in cutterheads, using balance scale, truing i block, emery wheel, and wrench.
• May be designated according to machine operated as double-spindle-shaper operator.
• May operate shaper machine to mold panels by cutting away sections along edges of stock and be designated panel-raiser operator.
• May be designated according to parts shaped as small-parts-shaper operator.