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Shaper Origin, a handheld CNC machine its creators promise is easy to use even for people inexperienced with CAD programs, is a new tool on the woodworking scene and already has wood flooring pros impressed.
The Origin is essentially a smart router. First a camera on the device maps the work surface. Then the user selects the type, width and depth of the cut using a touch-screen display on the device or by uploading a CAD file to the device via USB or Wi-Fi. Lastly, the user slides the device across the work surface based on the path displayed in real-time on the screen. The Origin can cut both the negative and positive pieces of an inlay. It is so precise that the user can offset the cut by something as small as a thousandth of an inch.
Internal moving parts allow the cutting blade to stay on track even if the user wobbles slightly off the center of the guide line. The blade will retract if the user goes too far off course. The creators call it auto-correct for your hands.
Among the Origin’s fans is wood flooring guru Mark Scheller of Scheller Hardwood Floors Inc. (Lemoyne, Pa.).
“The idea of having a CNC machine that you’re able to bring to the site and work on rather than a CNC machine bolted down in the shop is a game-changer,” Scheller told WFB.
The uses for wood flooring contractors are many, he says. For one, the Origin can be used to make Dutchman-style repairs to wood flooring. The creators behind Origin have already posted a YouTube video of one of their team members repairing wood flooring. Apart from repairs, the device allows a wood flooring contractor to cut inlays and freeform designs into a previously-installed wood floor without needing multiple templates.
While Scheller is an expert woodworker, the Origin creators designed the device to be used by almost anyone right out of the box, said CEO Joe Hebenstreit. The user doesn’t need to know CAD to program it; they need only know how to use a touch screen.
“You can sit there with the tool and say, ‘I’m going to put a hole right there. I want it X diameter and it should go right here,’ and you can literally punch that in and it will draw the shape and be cutting that shape in 30 seconds,” Hebenstreit said.
Ease of use was a requirement when Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D Alec Rivers invented the device. Rivers had inherited his grandfather’s woodworking tools and wanted to find a way to bypass his lack of woodworking experience and create something incredible. In 2011, using what he’d learned about software engineering at MIT, he put together a prototype of what would, five years later, become the Origin.
Since then Shaper has announced a partnership with Festool on the design and manufacturing of the router spindle. A presale was launched in 2016, and those devices are currently shipping to buyers.
The Shaper Origin is currently available online at a 20 percent discount. The offer expires Nov. 27, when the price will go to $2,199. Note that the sale is considered a pre-order. People who buy the pre-order can expect to receive the device in late March 2018.
More information can be found online at shapertools.com.