little box that has a purpose

[Rob Young]

My building on the KU campus is in the process of re-opening to research staff. One requirement is that staff should be wearing masks. And I've been printing the "ear saver" straps on my 3d printers for a while. Easily printed over 1,000 since March, most of which have been sent around town to places like Visiting Nurses, local hospital staff, etc. But now I should probably divert a few to research staff use.

So got out the paper and pencil and scribbled up a box shape to start cutting out parts. I treated myself to a Shaper Origin a few months ago and have been using the dickens out of it. Interesting tool and one of its clever tricks is being able to cut finger joints for (nearly) any width of stock such that they just slip together. No re-setting jigs, no fussing about with material widths to prevent "half width" fingers at the end of stock. It just works. The caveat is that you do need to make at least one test joint to find the "glue gap" setting. But this seems pretty consistent between wood species so I'm just keeping a list.

It can also handle engraving tasks. Just a single built-in font but anything you can get into an SVG file can be cut. 

   

Red oak from the scrap bin milled down to about 1/2". Also cut in the grooves for the bottom with the Shaper Origin. The bottom is made from 1/8" hardboard. 4 coats of Minwax Antique Oil which so far has been a nice oil varnish finish to use. It was cheaper to buy a tin of that than any other prepared finish or even make up a wiping varnish from scratch.

Chain was left-over from a project that needed a lid stay. Brass screws hold the chain.

[Arlin Eastman]

Rob

Can you add a picture of the tool you are talking about.  Is it over $500 to buy?

[Rob Young]

Rob

Can you add a picture of the tool you are talking about.  Is it over $500 to buy?

Arlin -

Yes, the Shaper Origin is a bit more than $500. List is $2400. Not inexpensive but considering its cost vs. that of a gantry-style CNC, it is competitively priced. Blew a big hole in my tool budget for the next couple of years with this one... That said, I was eyeing gantry-style CNCs for the purpose of template making (that's 2D cutting, not really 3D) and this handles all my needs but packs away into a systainer so I'm not giving up shop space when it isn't running. 

In the front-page photo linked below, the Shaper Origin is the bit that resembles a hand-held router. The remainder of the bits on in the photo are accessories and aren't absolutely required. It is common for users to make their own jig-and-fixture rig as the commercial one pictured is also rather expensive.

https://www.shapertools.com/en-us/


In the end, like any other tool, it is a personal choice and budget exercise to purchase. Hey, how much to Robust lathes cost these days?

[stoli]

It can also handle engraving tasks. Just a single built-in font but anything you can get into an SVG file can be cut. 

Glowforge (laser cutter) is promoting the same idea with a similar design. 

Since you mentioned the engraving capability of the origin, if you wanted to, you could reuse the pdf that Glowforge has designed that has a little picture of what the earsavers are used for: https://cdn.glowforge.com/d/EarSaverThankYouSign.zip

With the origin, you could probably figure out how to engrave on the assembled box with the right setup jig.

[AHill]

Excellent idea. I'm a bit frustrated that my employer will not allow us to uses ear savers with a mask, claiming they compromise the fit of a mask.

[Rob Young]

Excellent idea.  I'm a bit frustrated that my employer will not allow us to uses ear savers with a mask, claiming they compromise the fit of a mask.

Maybe for N95 it could have an effect but only if properly fitted in the first place. Paper and cloth surgical masks, not a real problem.

[Arlin Eastman]

Rob

For some reason the link does not work and googled it and clicked on the link and still does not work.  I read about it on google and think I seen it on YouTube several years ago.  Is it a router that has or can put code into it and it almost runs itself??

[Rob Young]

Rob

For some reason the link does not work and googled it and clicked on the link and still does not work.  I read about it on google and think I seen it on YouTube several years ago.  Is it a router that has or can put code into it and it almost runs itself??

 Link worked fine for me. Here it is again as an embedded link : Shaper Origin


You provide the gross movements, keeping the cutter to about a 1/2" area. The machine fine adjusts to stay on course within that 1/2" target circle. Feeds, speeds, plunge depth etc. are manually entered. Paths and line type (inside, outside, on-line, pocket) are managed through SVG files.