Very Interesting Looking Handheld CNC Router Product - Shaper Origin

[Ben Rivel]

Ran into this at the Maker Faire this year in the Bay Area and kept forgetting to post it here. Thought some of you might find it interesting. I think its always cool to see where technology might take us. Who knows if this type of product/device will ever take off, but it sure is an interesting concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxQ_NH4bj9o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSYjWN2CJ0

[Bruce Page]

That is innovative. It looks like they still don't have a release date for it.

[Ben Rivel]

Nope, and they have been showing it off for years now. No idea what the hold up is but they have been working at it for a very long time. Too long for how far along the products appears to have come.

[mark mcfarlane]

Nope, and they have been showing it off for years now. No idea what the hold up is but they have been working at it for a very long time. Too long for how far along the products appears to have come.

From the few videos I watched plus yours, I never saw them cutting anything more than 1/4", which makes some sense since if you go 'off-line' it has to pull the bit out of the wood before it cuts were you don't want to. An interesting concept and might be very cool for making a few small parts.

[Wes Harville]

YOu can pre order it now and it will ship september 2017

[Jerome Stanek]

YOu can pre order it now and it will ship september 2017

Sounds like another Glowforge

[Ben Rivel]

Interesting, looks like The Woodwhisperer posted about this this morning too. And another thread in this forum was created about it. I find that odd and surprising considering how long this device has been out in development. Years. All of a sudden theres action.

[mreza Salav]

I had seen links to this product long time ago (many months).

[William Adams]

The thing which is strange to me is that Fesstool is one of the sponsors, but they used a Dewalt DWP611 for initial testing, and it now seems as if a rebadged Makita (MLCS Rocky 30) is going to be used for production.

[Wayne Lomman]

One has to ask why? If you want cnc, there are plenty where you don't have to hold the power source in your hand and they don't wander off line in the first place and they aren't that expensive. It's a prime example of pointless gadgetry. Cheers

[Ben Rivel]

One has to ask why? If you want cnc, there are plenty where you don't have to hold the power source in your hand and they don't wander off line in the first place and they aren't that expensive. It's a prime example of pointless gadgetry. Cheers

People always ask the "why" question when new technology comes out. Remember when the iPad came out and no one could figure out why we needed a larger iPhone? Guess what, everyone has a tablet of some kind now and the entire industry was changed just because it was released. A lot of time people dont know what they "need" or want even until they have something or something is made available.

One thing I can think about this particular product is I believe it was around $1000 give or take a couple hundred. Thats cheaper than even a basic, small bed, non-spindle based CNC router from say Rockler or something which start at twice that. Dust collection on this would be better. You can use your existing handheld router. You can work on any sized board. Stuff along those lines were what struck me off the top of my head, Im sure there will be more once people start getting them in their hands.

[Art Mann]

As I understand it, you can build a Shapeoko CNC router for something like $600. Based on what I am seeing, it is far more useful than this thing. Not every new design turns out to be an innovation. Some just turn out to be funny.

[Bruce Page]

I could see an application for this on large aluminum sheet metal pieces where an odd cutout was needed in the middle of a large sheet. This would be a lot easier than jigging up a template.

[Biff Phillips]

As I understand it, you can build a Shapeoko CNC router for something like $600. Based on what I am seeing, it is far more useful than this thing. Not every new design turns out to be an innovation. Some just turn out to be funny.

But if this works as it is supposed to.. your "table size" is basically unlimited. Small CNCs are often limited to cutting something like 2' x 2' or even smaller.

[William Adams]

Many CNC machines allow one to feed stock through incrementally for indexed cuts