Hi Nate,

A 1/4" dia bead/cove bits work fine for 3/16" and 1/4" thick strips. I personally use a shaper w/ a power-feed to cut all my beads and coves. The power-feed takes a lot of the work out of machining the strips. It keeps the strip flat to the table, tight against the fence and zips them through the bit at a nice controlled rate. With the router table you lose all those benefits. You go back to spring boards and running the strips through manually. They run cooler and last longer on the shaper as well. Why bother?

Shaper cutters don't cost much more than router bits. I bought my cutter set through Grizzly back 2004 an have built 12 boats with them. I stacked them using a thin spacer to separate them.

Shaper Cutters
C2046 1/4" Flute = $25.95
C2052 1/4" Bead = $25.95

They sell router bits as well for $21.95 ea (you'd save $8). Hope it helps,

Dan