Have any of you ever worked with the shaper origin?
I did my first test with the Compass today and am a bit disappointed with the handling.
I think it should be the same with the shaper in auto mode, just because of the kinematics, as long as you don’t move at the exact speed the machine will always work against you.
The movement is very jerky, I find it difficult to move it smoothly. Is this also the case with the shaper?
In manual mode it adapts the x/y feed rate to the movement of the user, I can well imagine that this is more smootly.
I have not actually used a shaper but I have watched people in real life use it. I didn’t notice any significant movement differences. First guess in my mind is you might be trying to move too fast, slow down and everything should be smooth and silky if your movements are smooth and silky.
I am not a pro on the compass but have used it a few times for tiny detailed drawings and it does almost all the work for you, you just need to make sure the job is within the limits from time to time. The only time I have ever seen anything jerky is when the hose caught on the corner of the material and the sudden jerk made the Z move up to safety very fast.
For larger projects I think the trick is knowing what the router is doing either machine you use. You can follow the display that gives you a precise location to follow but if you know you are cutting a large rectangle that makes things very easy to predict in your head.
That is interesting. That would be a good addition if it could be done.
As it is, you’re at the mercy of the feedrate set in the file and you need to keep up, or the bit will lift. I have seen some people get good results by releasing the buttons when getting close to the edge so the Z lifts straight up instead of lifting while you are moving.
From what I’ve seen, reducing friction by watching out for cords and possibly waxing the machine bottom should give you good results.
Somebody at Opensauce mentioned slowing the feedrate as the tool approaches its bounds. That would a pretty easy thing to implement.
The “manual mode” is a bit trickier to implement, with the user initiating movement instead of the machine. This is how the previous 2 axis version worked, but 3 axes is a much more involved problem. I started off trying to program it that way, but settled on the constant feedrate, machine-led approach instead. The main benefit of this approach, though, is being able to set specific feedrates for different materials to ensure consistent surface finishes