Router profile

I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking at in the pictures.
Cabinet shops often use a shaper not a router and if it is from a mill it is almost definitely from a shaper so there may not be a router bit to match.
It is possible to grind a steel router bit to shape if necessary or you might use the router to come close then grind a scraper blade to the desired final shape and scrape the last part.

-- Les B, Oregon

The door lip bit from MLCS looks pretty close:

https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bt_door.html#door_lip_bits_anchor

I’ve been asked several times to replicate
doors and in general I’ve found finding a
matching cutter, even a shaper cutter, is
difficult, much less a set to do everything.

In the big shops that produce a large number
of cabinet doors they use tooling than includes
not only shaper heads, but sanding heads
shaped to the same profile. Unique machinery
is one such company that makes these shape
and sand profiling machines.

Thus for the small operator and/or short run
fining off-the-shelf tooling that will match is
often a long shot. There are various ways to
make your own tooling or you can fake it
using some of these methods:

1. rough out the shape using what tooling you can
get at a reasonable cost and by using what you
already have creatively and then go to step 3.

2. regrind a molding head. This is one of those
things a radial arm saw can be useful for because
the head can be turned horizontal and set up with
fences to perform like a shaper. With a molding
head only the highest knife cuts the profile and
the other knives don’t have to be ground as
accurately – they are dummies for balance. Single
knife molding heads were also sold.

3. make a custom sanding block out of auto body
filler. If you have a variety of router bits the
profile can be milled fairly close and then
brought to final shape with coarse sandpaper.
Molding planes are also useful for this sort of
thing, but choosing, collecting, maintaining
and using them is a whole field of study. Perhaps
a Stanley 45 or similar plane can be used more
efficiently.

If this all sounds like a lot of hassle to match a
door for a friend, you’re right. Generally these
days I might say something like “matching these
profiles exactly may require a heroic effort or
significant outlay for custom tooling” – in which
case the client can double down because it’s an
old house and it must be perfect or they can
accept something less than a perfect match.

Reproduction sash makers have a segment of the
residential population rather over a barrel in
this matter. It seems like a lucrative specialty
to me, but that’s only me saying that as an
outsider.

You can create countless profiles with simpler bits. I can’t tell from the photos anything about the dimensions, but it appears that a thumbnail bit combined with a straight bit and a small-radius round over might give you a similar profile.

Thumbing through catalog that came in today’s mail… this bit may be close enough;

http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/v179-2405/router_bits_-_ea?s=FLIPSEEK

-- Rick - I know I am not perfect, but I will keep pressing on toward the goal of becoming all I am called to be.

bead + round nose bits

-- "It's getting better..." - put this on my RIP stone!