Handheld CNC router

[andrew whicker]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with these routers? I'm curious how they perform / are worth the cost if you have limited space for the real deal (i.e. a table cnc router).

cheers,

[Kevin Jenness]

The shop I used to work at has a Shaper Origin which they have found useful. They still hire me for cnc work so obviously it is not a universal solution. It is very low powered (think trim router) and runs on the work surface so it is limited to operations that allow for the router base to be supported and have a small cut depth. I think when they make templates they rout a shallow groove, then saw off the waste and trim with another tool rather than cut the full profile at slow speed with the origin. The accuracy seems to be ok, I know they have used it for inlaying to some extent. Clearly not for production, but could be good especially for work larger than a table router can handle, like a floor inlay.

The tool requires consumable locating tape which I suspect is not cheap. One advantage of a flatbed router is that you can be doing other tasks while a file is running- not so with this tool.

[andrew whicker]

I saw the 1/4" collet max. That's crazy. Can't give it a bigger motor?

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like it has all the benefits and limitations one would expect. I was curious how well it works for inlay, accuracy wise.

[Chuck Nickerson]

One of our club members has one and several of us have used it for special projects.

For instance, I've used it to do special cutouts for five barn owl boxes. It works as advertised.

It's not a production shop tool, except perhaps for prototypes and pattern-making

[Kevin Jenness]

" Can't give it a bigger motor?"

The Origin is operated by manually steering it along a path indicated on an onboard screen. As long as it is guided within the path deviations from the programmed course are compensated by the spindle moving on its platform. My guess is that a more powerful spindle, in itself heavier, would have to have a stronger and heavier auto-correction mechanism and the overall unit would become unwieldy- at 14 lbs it's already no lightweight.