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Introducing the Shaper Origin, a Self-Correcting Router

For shops that need to cut complicated shapes out of wood, there are two popular options: Use a gantry-style CNC mill or a handheld router. The former requires lots of space and can be pricey. The latter is much more affordable, but requires making templates for repeatability.

A company called Shaper has combined the two to provide a third option. Their Origin is a trim router wrapped in a small computer, equipped with a camera and tricked-out with a self-correcting mechanism that precisely places the cutting head, rather like an auto-targeting system; the user need only get it in the general vicinity. Take a look:

Here’s how they envision it being used:

The technology was developed four years ago at MIT (we covered it here) and is finally being brought to market. When it arrives in September of 2017, it will retail for $2,099. The company is currently taking pre-orders (in limited numbers) at the reduced price of $1,499.