Shaper Origin near Oak Island
- Thread starter jgt1942
- Start date
I'm a bit far from you. I'm in Chapel Hill. Did you just get one or thinking about it? I love mine!
I recently purchase the Shaper Origin and all the accessories. Now that I have it I don't know where to start with my learning. What software should I be using? I'm windows based, running both Win10 and Win11. When I get my new desktop built I will be running win11 and most likely not use any of my systems with Win10.
I was disappointed that Shaper does not have a series of videos that start with step one and lead you down the path to where you can become productive. If they have such, I have not found it.
At this time I know almost nothing about the Origin
I was disappointed that Shaper does not have a series of videos that start with step one and lead you down the path to where you can become productive. If they have such, I have not found it.
At this time I know almost nothing about the Origin
John,
Shaper Tools puts on a Shaper Sessions every other Thursday at 7pm EST. You have to subscribe to get the invite. But you can find all the recorded sessions here -> Origin + Workstation = Your Precision Workshop
There's also a forum with lots of great useful info. I personally use Fusion360 for development of designs. If you register as a hobby user, it's free. It takes some time to get used to, but I can also give you some links on YouTube to some people that did quite a few lessons on Fusion360 from beginner to advanced stuff. Once you get into it, you'll really get rolling along!
Michael
Oh, forgot, I sent you a PM, so check your private conversations for a message.
Shaper Tools puts on a Shaper Sessions every other Thursday at 7pm EST. You have to subscribe to get the invite. But you can find all the recorded sessions here -> Origin + Workstation = Your Precision Workshop
There's also a forum with lots of great useful info. I personally use Fusion360 for development of designs. If you register as a hobby user, it's free. It takes some time to get used to, but I can also give you some links on YouTube to some people that did quite a few lessons on Fusion360 from beginner to advanced stuff. Once you get into it, you'll really get rolling along!
Michael
Oh, forgot, I sent you a PM, so check your private conversations for a message.
John,
I think I understand where you are. If you haven't already looked at this New User Onboarding | Shaper Sessions I would start there. I think it's a good introduction for the basic elements of the SO.
I would then look to ShaperHub and find a simple project to download and cut. Since I had a workstation I decided to make some spoil boards for it. There are several on ShaperHub. In addition to the spoil boards I downloaded some of the MFT fixture projects. I ended up cutting up a half sheet of MDF. I would only cut MDF at first. It's cheep and you don't have to deal with grain and density variations of wood. During this exercise I also realized that I probably didn't want to do all of the profile cutting with the SO. It's much faster to only do one profile step and then bandsaw and clean up with router table and flush cutting bit.
When I ran into difficulties cutting the downloaded projects I would use the on tool design functions to create shapes for specific function I was having problems with. Most of the problems with cut quality I soon found out was due to bit speed and cut depth. Once I realized lower spindle speeds cut much better than higher and cleanup passes could be cut at full depth things went really well.
I found the support pages https://support.shapertools.com/hc/en-us/categories/9765855498779-Origin well organized and easy to navigate. I found easier to find what I needed rather than just watching the more project oriented youtubes.
I think I understand where you are. If you haven't already looked at this New User Onboarding | Shaper Sessions I would start there. I think it's a good introduction for the basic elements of the SO.
I would then look to ShaperHub and find a simple project to download and cut. Since I had a workstation I decided to make some spoil boards for it. There are several on ShaperHub. In addition to the spoil boards I downloaded some of the MFT fixture projects. I ended up cutting up a half sheet of MDF. I would only cut MDF at first. It's cheep and you don't have to deal with grain and density variations of wood. During this exercise I also realized that I probably didn't want to do all of the profile cutting with the SO. It's much faster to only do one profile step and then bandsaw and clean up with router table and flush cutting bit.
When I ran into difficulties cutting the downloaded projects I would use the on tool design functions to create shapes for specific function I was having problems with. Most of the problems with cut quality I soon found out was due to bit speed and cut depth. Once I realized lower spindle speeds cut much better than higher and cleanup passes could be cut at full depth things went really well.
I found the support pages https://support.shapertools.com/hc/en-us/categories/9765855498779-Origin well organized and easy to navigate. I found easier to find what I needed rather than just watching the more project oriented youtubes.
I have a Shaper Origin. Live in St James.
Hey, we are designing a class at the North Carolina Furniture School for the Shaper Origin currently, and would love for you to be a part of it! Can you tell me what your goals are with the machine? We plan to offer the class in the spring semester, and at this point we will cover basic operations, bit choices, flat sheet cutting (think flat shapes), joinery, and inlaying. I am actively talking with some of our current students about their machines/goals/struggles. if you want to talk by phone, please give me a call at 252.916.8226 thanks!
I have been a Shaper Origin owner/user for about 3 years now. I use Shaper Studio (web based) for my design work. Not as powerful as Fusion 360 or Affinity Designer, but the learning Studio is no heavy lifting. They have a "free" version and a paid version. The only difference is that the free version is limited in how many designs you can push to your machine per month. I would suggest you play around with the free version for a bit. I do love the machine. I'm a distance from you but you certainly can reach out to me via PM if you want to talk Origin and my experience with learning the machine. I was a bit intimidated by it at first but YouTube was my friend in the learning process.
