Shaper Origin

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I might have imagined it but did I read something about if you bought one Shaper still owned the software so could withdraw it or start charging for updates if they wanted, although I guess a lot of electronic items are like this now?
 
Phillip Morley (IG and YouTube) has one and he has a few videos using it now. Seems an interesting piece of kit.
 
Third comment in over 30 months on here and you spent it on pointing out the obvious. Eh?

Can I ask if you bought the workstation, is it needed to get the most from it.
Look at your post and you will see that you said “it's just that not everyone on here has web access!” 😉

I have the workstation but not necessary, you can make your own tailored to your needs, plenty of plans to get you started.
 
I too am looking at this. For me, the question is about which direction to take my fledgling business.

I currently make a small number of kitchen islands, a larger volume of butchers blocks and cutting boards. This produces lumpy demand which I would like to in-fill with something else.

I looked at 3 options:

1. I also trained to fit kitchens but this is hard work on your own, and it seems to be a very emotional experience for the customer - lots of scope for grief for no more return than more creative woodworking can provide. However there is plenty of work out there and I also have the ability to work with a more experienced carpenter to help him on jobs. I see little scope for Shaper here

2. I would like to produce higher-end furniture with more interesting shapes and complex angles. With a son trained in CAD I can get the files easily and the Shaper looks good for this. The downside is the need to build a portfolio of items which takes space, time and cost

3. I could also make smaller items for the gift market. Bath trays, signs, etc. A saturated market online but relatively easy to produce for when craft markets start up. Shaper again would work well here

My calculation is that I need to make about £150-200 pm to depreciate the investment over a few years so the risk is not high. The decision I have to make is where to invest my time as I am currently the bottleneck in my business.

I do not want to spend hours learning CAD, I don’t have space for a gantry CNC, and although one of my goals is to produce better results by hand, I feel the Shaper Origin could provide a turbo charge.

So in summary, the question is not whether the Shaper is worth buying but more how to best deploy it to grow my business. Does anybody have experience of doing this for their own which they could share?

Many thanks.

David.
 
I'm waiting until lockdown restrictions have eased and hoping that I'm going to be able to get an in-person demo of the Shaper before I decide.

I'm sure that the uses are endless, and far beyond the very poor (IMHO) promotional videos.
 
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