While I wait for some workshop time during “I can make some noise”-hours I think we can take a short trip down offtopic-lane:
Like it very much. Would get it again immediately.
Nope, not one. You can look at hub.shapertools.com - people do the most amazing stuff with it. It’s the thingiverse for the Shaper Origin. I have also published there. It’s fun.
But some of these fun and cool projects can become very tedious to do by hand (involve a lot of repetitive cuts // are very detailed and complex // cost a lot of time to set up for “Shapering”…), even when doing just one. That’s the point of pain for me. Spending hours carving the same contour over and over again. Just thinking about it makes me cringe
Exactly.
Main plan is to do prototyping (usually just one) with the Shaper (easier to get cutting) and then do another 5 or 10 on the LowRider, to do a set or give gifts or sell at the shop… these things…
Usually thinking of repeating the same process another X times after finishing the first with the Shaper makes me step away from it. Not because it’s impossible to do, it just takes a lot of time and repetitive work - both I dislike a lot. This is where LowRider steps in to save the day
Hard to judge from another perspective, I had a good business case to get the Shaper and refinanced well and fast. It was a great investment that I would certainly repeat. I have used it extensively since 12/2019 now and it does not show signs of wear. I even dropped it once from about a meter (about 2 years ago)…
The firmware just got updated few weeks ago with really cool new on-tool design-features (for slots and similar geometries). So it keeps getting better while I have it. It’s the 4th major update I’ve seen since having it.
If you have further questions maybe we should continue per Messaging though Or make an off-topic thread. You decide
How do I confirm or take note of the final dimensions I achieved with my build? For example go to the utmost 0/0 point and then find out the values of Xmax and Ymax I can achieve in reality on the table, so I know I can safely run the first surfacing program on my spoilboard without sending the LowRider off the table? Jog it around until on of the motors hits a hard stop? Where in the FluidNC software would I look for the corresponding X/Y then?
That’s what you can do. You can also just look at the gap and see when it is close. You can also use a tape measure to get your first guess. Just measure from the truck to where it will hit.
The position is under the jog controls. There are ones for machine and workspace coordinates. Use the one that starts at zero after homing.
Off-topic would be fine by me, If it’s fine by @vicious1 the messages could be moved.
I’m impressed by the technology of the shaper and also by the whole “augmentated manufacturing/machining” Idea they seem to have, It’s like a very obvious idea of how to create just what feels like a more advanced but equally accessible tool.
Is it as accessible as it seems? For me clearly one of the pain points of using any CNC is the whole software stack setup you NEED to go through to get a cut prepared or adjust an existing cut
Also the portability and “unlimited workspace” is very appealing to me, since there’s not so many solutions that can do so much with so little machine (figuratively speaking).
You can unpack it and start cutting right away. If you don‘t want to use software, design your stuff on-tool with the basic shapes provided (square, circle, line, point-to-point-shapes, triangle, slots, text, box joints) or download some file from ShaperHub and just follow the instructions.
The software stack is basically any editor that can make sense of SVG, the colors you use in the SVG can be used to encode the cut-type (on-line, pocket, exterior, interior) for quicker working. You upload the SVG to the machine, place it in your workspace and off you go.
I’m not at the shop at the moment since I’m travelling around Europe for work, but there is a thing that is still nagging in the back of my mind. I have sneaked in an afternoon of starting to square the machine and wonder how much difference in pulloff from the endstop the machine can handle before it is better for me to move the rail oder the end block etc.
So far I am at 2mm pulloff on the left and 8mm pulloff on the right. Is this a point where I adjust the rail a bit or is this still something the machine can handle, also under load at a later time? I’m looking to get an estimate on the range of the pulloff-values that are OK for the machine.
