That's pretty cool if it actually exists. I wonder, though: if your tape is 1 or 2mm out of square (easy enough to do on a 6' x 8') sheet, does that then mean all your cutting turns to crap?
My son just sent me a link to this video of a hand held tool called Sharper Origin. This is basically a hand held router with a built in display and some sensors, and some servo motors that can move the spindle Left,Right or Up or Down. The hand router seems to follow some coded tape that you put on the board you want to cut. The advantage is this can use used to cut out larger objects, since you can extend the tape as far as required, unlike a size restricted table. Anyway just another twist on CNC. I have no affiliation with this company at all, just sharing an interesting video.
https://shapertools.com/
Similar Threads:
That's pretty cool if it actually exists. I wonder, though: if your tape is 1 or 2mm out of square (easy enough to do on a 6' x 8') sheet, does that then mean all your cutting turns to crap?
Yeah it seems to require you to lay down the tape accurately since it uses the tape to correct spindle path.
I believe It has some sort of eye that maps the position of the tape regardless of the tape orientation.
Rockler Woodworking is promoting it and they have been around for ages.
Shaper Origin
Jeff...
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
They have a bunch of demo videos of an actual working machine. Pretty impressive.
The videos on Rockler are very interesting. They show one where they cut out a dog tag out of brass with the dog's name engraved on the tag. That video gives you an idea of how the hand held unit actually works. As others said there are sensors that read the tape just to know it's orientation. If you watch closely you will see the cutter head moving to form the letters of the dog's name while to router body is pretty stationary. If must have maybe an inch of movement in X,Y directions as well as have the ability to move the cutter head up and down. In fact if it gets off the path the cutter head is automatically retracted. I could see where cutting out larger patterns like a canoe, airplane frame, and many other items that exceed the common hobby size router tables this would be a nice tool to own. The price is a bit steep at $1500, but it is clearly innovative.
Russ
dunno
$250 router
$250 tablet
$100 steppers or servos
$100 camera
Then your share of
1 000 - 10 000 man hours in software, electronic and mech engineering.
$buckets in prototypes and failures
Insurance, forward costs in stock etc
It's not cheap. But $1500 doesn't look like that bad a deal considering what's coming in the box.
Nicely done bit of gear!
I know this post is a year old but I just got an email saying that the pre-order price for the Shaper Origin is increasing on September 1. The price is going up $200 to $1899. If anyone is on the fence about buying this is a good time to flip the coin.
Shaper Tools recently announced that they have chosen to use a Festool spindle. - Nice choice. https://shapertools.com/blog/posts/july-2017-update/
Here is a discount link that is still good that brings the price down to $1599 until September 1.
https://preorder.shapertools.com/ref/2QULRR4KB
This looks like a great piece of kit, has anyone used it yet!
yes i have one. it fill a certain niche very well. it is not idiot proof. if you do your part it does its part very well. i have several cnc machines and this fills a hole. i also have a heavily modified handibot. i actually look at these two machines as a 1 2 punch in portable cnc. Considering my other machines weigh tons. the Shaper is a high quality tool and within its limits a solid choice. As a festool fan as well the fact that it has a festool spindle and comes in a systainer is a psychological benefit. i plan on making videos of the machine in the wild, comparing its out put to classical cnc machine solutions.