Shaper Workstation Table Jig

[Michael Burnside]

Wifey said I have to wait until tomorrow before opening the Shaper Origin but I tricked her into allowing me to open the workstation early

Got the workstation mounted on my Husky toolbox with a raising table so I can do some box joints on 48" long stock, for an upcoming project. I've also got a couple of smaller projects and need a little larger worktable than what comes with the Workstation. So, I decided to take the morning and bang out a jig. I found some reference designs on ShaperHub from robbjibson which I think will work and I liked the design. I may build a couple more custom tables, but this one will work nicely for what I've got coming up. I downloaded the SVG, made a few changes in Vcarve Pro, generated some toopaths and boom, a set of 2 tables.



Final design with some example dog accessories I use often on my ShopSabre. I really like dogs for referencing and/or preventing stock from shifting. These holes are 48mm on-center so they'll work with any 96mm MFT jigs.

[Jim Becker]

That's an excellent way to expand the versatility using multiple "workstations" that are tailored to the need...including height for workpiece clearance. (Of course, you may end up with one at the top of a stepladder using that theory. LOL)

[Michael Burnside]

LOL, you're not kidding Jim! If these 48" box joints work out, I'll be doing something similar on a 72" sideboard I've got in the works next. That will require a 24" x 24" "box" to set the workstation atop my raisable workbench for milling the tails on the long boards!

Really excited to see how the Shaper Origin integrates into my typical workflow.

[Michael Burnside]

Still messing around, testing, but the jig worked great. Took less than 2 minutes to setup a grid and mill two 20mm holes. One at -0.005" and another at -0.003", the latter being a perfect, tight fit. I measured various dimensions and they're all within 0.001" of drawn, which is pretty incredible.

[Dan Barber]

Michael, where did you find the design on ShaperHub? My Goggle Fu is not working today apparently... Can you share a link?

[Michael Burnside]

I’ll try to find it for you when I get home Dan. If not I can mail you the CAD file (Vcarve Pro) or SVG if you want.

[Dan Barber]

I’ll try to find it for you when I get home Dan. If not I can mail you the CAD file (Vcarve Pro) or SVG if you want.

Thanks, I can take any kind of 3D file or SVG. I think SVG would be best in this case.

Thanks!

[Michael Burnside]

Tried a mortise and tenon today. I intentionally created an offset tenon (in both X and Y) so I could see if the reference surfaces of the Shaper, and grid offsets are accurate. Plenty of examples, even from Shaper themselves, but they always seem to assume perfectly square stock and perfectly positioned mortise and tenons. If my milling process builds "square" legs that are less than 0.005" different but all the same...I'm calling that square

The scrap I was working with was 1.15" x 1.11", so it was a good overall test of the Shaper's ability to accurately mill two pieces "in the real world". The only trick, if you do an offset mortise and tenon, is that you need to mirror the tenon. This is easily done live on the tool or in design. In addition, I wanted the tenon side to perfectly line up at 3" from the edge of the mortise's left side. Overall I'm super impressed with the Shaper Origin's capabilities. I was worried that I'd be disappointed being used to my industrial, dead accurate gantry CNC. In the end, the two pieces of stock were perfectly flush and the tenon was dead on 3" away. The tenon was 0.5" long and the mortise 0.6" deep and fit was perfect. I also milled another mortise just playing with tolerance offsets and disabling autopass. I started with 0.000 and went to 0.008" where each time I noticed just a sliver of wood being removed and the fit went from stupid tight, to perfect, to loose.



Closeup of the joint pieces

[Michael Burnside]

I ended up making a larger jig for wider stock. I have some 9" drawer fronts I'll be working on for my next project so I wanted some additional options. I was testing the drawer pulls and seeing if I liked them proud or recessed. The later looks more inline with the overall piece aesthetic.

I was on the fence with Shaper and whether or not I'd find it useful, but overall I'm quite happy with the results and ease of use thus far.

[Dan Barber]

Michael, you have certainly dived right in! I've been a lazy guy the last few days. I really need to get in the shop - sounds like a great new years resolution!

Impressed with the results BTW.

[Michael Burnside]

Thanks Dan. It’s really been fun learning, generating designs in ShaperHub and Vcarve and testing it out live.

Tomorrow I’m going to dive into the plate and see how that works.

[Michael Burnside]

Slightly off-topic, but I got around to messing with the Shaper Plate. The general idea is that instead of bringing the workpiece to the Shaper Workstation, you bring the Shaper to the workpiece. Essentially plate is a pre-built workspace of tape with numerous fixed offsets and stops at your immediate disposal. It is incredibly well built and after setting up a grid, accurate and wicked fast.

I did all the following tests on the tool itself, never going to a computer. I wanted to test a few common tasks I use my router and/or drill for when assembling furniture. The first test was a key-hole that goes completely through the workpiece and a recess for the screw head. The key was 1/2" to simulate some give for wood movement +/- 1/4". I just created two slots and the appropriate depths I wanted. For the through keyhole I used the "helix" option. It's super slick and the keyhole was cut out in maybe 8-10 seconds. I also added a second at a fixed offset (again, more testing) and it took little more than moving the shaper into position and cutting again. The alignment was dead on.

The next test was a "hole" for a threaded insert. Again I used two circles. One that went all the way through (0.77") and a second just 0.07" deep and 0.02" wider to allow for a clean, flush finish. In total it took less than 30 seconds to setup the hole configuration and another 5-8 seconds to cut the hole. Subsequent holes would take only the 5-8 seconds each. I was blown away at how fast, accurate and clean this process was. With my CT-26 and 36mm hose I didn't even have any clean-up LOL.




Threaded insert went in with minimal effort and the surface came out perfect. I tried to zoom in so you could see.

[stan kern]

you are doing good work and your workmanship is excellent

[Michael Burnside]

Thanks Stan, appreciate it. It's been really fun learning a new tool to even perform old tasks differently.