Cool tool!

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

**LINK**

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

nice price!!!!!!!!

jim

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I think someone posted a demo of that several years ago … so it's finally come to market!

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

link doesn't work for me

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Posted by duncan webster on 03/02/2018 14:34:39:

link doesn't work for me

Me neither… message says 'Problem loading page'

George

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

Link worked for me (Win 10 & Firefox)

Brian

[norman royds 2Participant @normanroyds2]

Link doesn't work for me (win 10 & Firefox) norm

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Try search for " Shaper Origin"

At £2000 it might just be outside the regular DIY budget. They are taking "pre-orders" to fund it.

Quite a clever concept I guess a bit along the lines of video cameras that correct the picture to take out your hand wobbling.

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

I've done a lot of thinking about this tool & I cannot think why they didn't initially sell the concept as an easy way to make large 'gantry' type cnc routers much, much cheaper.

Why would you need to go to the expense of manufacturing a large, sturdy & accurate X&Y mechanism when all of that could be sorted out at the tool?

There has to be something they're not telling us & I'm very worried about the way they are gradually rolling this 'grounbreaking' tool out !

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

There was me thinking Joseph had gone into production of his NC Shaper conversion…

I do fell a bit underwhelmed by this. It is an idea desperately seeking an application. I remain to be convinced this is it.

Regards

Richard.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by Mick Charity on 03/02/2018 16:39:41:

I've done a lot of thinking about this tool & I cannot think why they didn't initially sell the concept as an easy way to make large 'gantry' type cnc routers much, much cheaper.

Why would you need to go to the expense of manufacturing a large, sturdy & accurate X&Y mechanism when all of that could be sorted out at the tool?

There has to be something they're not telling us & I'm very worried about the way they are gradually rolling this 'grounbreaking' tool out !

To answer your question, you still need to control the position of the cutter and if you are cutting anything serious, it will be generating large forces. If you are just routing some MDF, the forces you need to contain (with your hands and the friction between the machine and the work) will be relatively manageable. If it doesn't have to contend with any serious forces, by definition your gantry wouldn't need to be "large and sturdy".

There is another issue you haven't addressed – it takes AGES to produce finished work. If you take a few minutes to search on Youtube, you should be able to find a review I saw a few months back that shows what utter tedium they are to use. Certainly, you'd have your work cut out trying to make a living from one. On the other hand, if you automated the machine, you'd be able to leave it to do the work while you get on with something else. Oh wait….

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 03/02/2018 21:41:15

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Dear me! What a load of negativity! This is basically a smart router for people who want to make stuff but don't necessarily have the manual skills, first to layout the work on the sheet material, second to guide the cutter accurately. And they don't have the room for a large gantry type router! You can design the shapes in CAD/CAM, download to the tool, which measures it's position on the material and corrects the cutter to follow the correct line. It's innovative and entrepreneurial, they raised money by crowdfunding, if it doesn't catch on then that's capitalism for you. Considering the amount of R&D required, the mechanical, electronics hardware & software engineering, I think for launch it's probably underpriced – but having shown the way then perhaps someone like Trend will come along and acquire them.

What's to worry about? We should celebrate invention, not condemn it.

[egaParticipant @ega]

I watched the "first cut" video and thought the process seemed very long-winded; its cost-effectiveness depends on the nature of the job, of course.

It later occurred to me that if the tool became popular someone might market ply, etc pre-printed with the "domino" patterns and thereby save some time in setting up.

I was agreeably surprised by the price.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

You would think it should be possible to use an optical mouse sensor for positioning?

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

People who want to make stuff but don't have the manual skills could always learn them? Or alternately, it doesn't exist except as a prototype, and if we get enough money in, we might make a few! sorry to be another negative, but if it was a good, or even practical idea, it would not need to be financed like this. It is another self filling water bottle underwater breather idea! The giveaway is the need to "pre-order".

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by John Haine on 04/02/2018 09:47:27:

Dear me! What a load of negativity! This is basically a smart router for people who want to make stuff but don't necessarily have the manual skills, first to layout the work on the sheet material, second to guide the cutter accurately. And they don't have the room for a large gantry type router! You can design the shapes in CAD/CAM, download to the tool, which measures it's position on the material and corrects the cutter to follow the correct line. It's innovative and entrepreneurial, they raised money by crowdfunding, if it doesn't catch on then that's capitalism for you. Considering the amount of R&D required, the mechanical, electronics hardware & software engineering, I think for launch it's probably underpriced – but having shown the way then perhaps someone like Trend will come along and acquire them.

What's to worry about? We should celebrate invention, not condemn it.

I don't think that it is a smart router for people who don't have the manual skills. What this router does cannot be done manually.

It replaces the need for a gantry type CNC router.

What I cannot understand is why they felt the need to resort to a handheld device when this technology could make gantry type CNC routers so inexpensive that it opens up the market. If you were to put this type of spindle in any CNC machine then the very expensive bit of engineering the whole thing accurate is replaced by the mechanism at the spindle correcting any errors.

Something stinks, I can smell it, but I can't yet put my finger on it.

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Well it might be good, but since I can't seem to open the webpage I will never know about it.

Michael W

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

For the people who can't get the website.

It looks as though it provides a picture of where you should be cutting for your design onto a little screen and you try to follow that. Then it corrects for your errors by being able to move the cutting head a couple of inches in each direction within what looks like a normal big hand held router. To get its bearings on the bit of wood sheet you have to lay down lines of special masking tape with a domino pattern as mentioned above which it 'scans'.

It seems a pretty nifty idea to me, just waaaaaay outside my budget.

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

Posted by John Haine on 04/02/2018 10:17:58:

You would think it should be possible to use an optical mouse sensor for positioning?

The sensor area for mice is tiny and they regularly become confused when there isn't enough difference with distinctive artefacts between captured frames.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

A manual CNC machine! Why didn't I think of that. Combining the disadvantages of manual tools and few if any of the advantages of CNC! Call me negative if you want but a CNC machine you have to move manually is a bit of a pointless exercise surely unless you like standing for hours pushing a tool around a sheet of wood. No law against it of course…

Murray

[ZebethyalParticipant @zebethyal]

For around the same ballpark price, you could buy a Handibot, which has already been brought to market. Where all you really do is hold the frame in place while it cuts (you can also clamp it in place to save holding the handles.

This is also an open source/hardware project, so you can build one yourself should you so desire.

For larger areas, simply overlay a grid on the surface and move the Handibot to the next location in your grid to cut the next section.

Now has a big brother that allows for 24" wide cuts (as opposed to 8&quot

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Phil Whitley on 04/02/2018 15:46:08:

People who want to make stuff but don't have the manual skills could always learn them? Or alternately, it doesn't exist except as a prototype, and if we get enough money in, we might make a few! sorry to be another negative, but if it was a good, or even practical idea, it would not need to be financed like this. It is another self filling water bottle underwater breather idea! The giveaway is the need to "pre-order".

My suspicion too.

What about the thing that miraculously restores filthy rusted metal to a mirror finish by light alone? Has it really hit the market? Are there small businesses offering its capability as a service?

Thirty years in the software industry has made me well aware of the presence of vapourware – touted as being already available but which is actually developed with very variable degrees of success on the back of the customer's financing of the implementation project.

Edited By Mick B1 on 06/02/2018 14:42:22

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Yes Mick B1, they are on the market, if anyone can afford one! They usually demo the most expensive model, here is the cheaper one!

As such, it's very expensive: P-Laser told R&T that a low-power QF-50, with only 50 watts of muscle, costs 47,800 Euro, or more than $53,000 at today's exchange rate. We assume that's outside your tool budget. How's it work?30 Aug 2016

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