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by Suppafly 581 days ago
>The Shaper Origin has you move the machine, and it makes corrections using machine vision to track its position. It will give you more accuracy than a Maslow; but at a much greater cost and more attention.

I really don't understand the market for the shaper. Even the youtubers that get paid to shill them don't seem to have a compelling reason to be using them.
3 comments
cpwright 580 days ago
I've not bought an origin, but think it definitely has a niche. You can do almost everything you can do with a Shaper Origin with a regular router, but you'll need a template or jig to do it.

For example: - It can do dovetails, etc. instead of purchasing a Leigh jig and using a standard router. - You can do hinge mortises for various hardware. - Cutouts in hardwood floors for various registers, without having to make a template for just that thing.

When you get into curves instead of just straight lines it can be easier to work with the Shaper than a template/jig. You can also use the Shaper to build a template that a standard bearing guided bit will follow.

You can do all of that with another tool, but the Shaper origin does it with less setup. The trade-off is if you have the setup then a regular router is probably going to be much faster to batch things out.

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jdietrich 581 days ago
Broadly the same market as the Festool Domino. The Domino doesn't do anything that you can't do with a dowel jig or a biscuit jointer, it's just does one thing quickly, accurately and well. The Shaper Origin isn't a replacement for a full-sheet CNC router with an ATC, but it is an excellent alternative to a plunge router and a stack of custom templates. Nobody needs one, but for someone who does high-end custom cabinetry and joinery, the Origin should give a good ROI.
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mbgerring 581 days ago
Being able to cut complex shapes on site for art builds, where a designer knows Illustrator but nothing about tool paths, has paid for my Shaper Origin several times over already.
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Suppafly 580 days ago
>where a designer knows Illustrator but nothing about tool paths

I guess that's probably the best use case, you've changed my mind.

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