I’ve been fairly quiet on my blog; I’ve been very busy in my role leading engineering at Shaper Tools. My team’s focus has been on expanding our hardware and software products that empower craftspeople around the world (Studio, ShaperHub, Trace, Bitwasher, Connected Calipers, and much more)!
Earlier this summer, we announced Shaper BenchPilot, the latest piece of the Shaper product ecosystem. BenchPilot is like autopilot for Origin (Shaper’s handheld CNC). Clip Origin into BenchPilot to turn it into a hands-free milling machine, capable of vertical or horizontal cutting. With BenchPilot, you can focus on other tasks in your shop while it drives Origin around, making your desired cuts. Essentially, we’ve turned Origin into a Benchtop CNC that leverages the award-winning simplicity of Origin’s user interface. We worked hard to make the experience of using BenchPilot as seamless as possible – if you can use Origin, then there is effectively zero learning curve to adding BenchPilot to your workflow. Simply snap Origin into BenchPilot, it will magically auto-connect, switch to “Pilot” mode, and then you just have to hit the green button and watch it go. As with Origin, we’ve eliminated the CAM programming step from CNC machining, so you can focus on your craft by going directly from design to cutting.
BenchPilot has already won several awards for what it brings to the woodworking industry: The AWFS Visionary Award and the Woodworking Network Editor’s Choice Award.
Now that BenchPilot has begun shipping out to customers, this felt like a great time to share some of the overwhelmingly positive reviews:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I’ve never had so much fun woodworking. This is the best investment I’ve ever made”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I absolutely love Bench Pilot. Its an absolute game changer. Ive been using it a week and its become my new favorite shop tool.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Are you kidding me? I thought the Shaper Origin was amazing and now they just made it 10 times better. All of their products are so well thought out, tested and user friendly, that it would be impossible not to love them.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This is a real time saver and productivity booster! I’ve had it for a few weeks and was impressed with the ease of assembly and getting started. The interface for selecting cuts is simple to understand. The combination with Shaper Studio means my designs can more quickly go from idea to execution with bit sizes, depth and order of cutting easy to define in advance and know that BenchPilot with Origin can get them done! Another great addition to the Shaper ecosystem. One of the coolest tools with so many uses for hobby or professional user!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Fantastic ! It’s a great addition to my current Shaper Origin setup. BenchPilot enables me to spend more time working on designing new projects, while repetitive tasks are automatically cut to the specific 3D dimensions. I am enjoying the experience immensely!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I expected it to connect and work seamlessly with Origin. What I didn’t expect was the intelligence on multiple cut types and the flexible and intuitive controls for customizing operation.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This fits me so well. I love to get stuff done, and this tool allows me to keep working on other things while still creating on it. Very well thought out design with the quick release. Software is good and gets better at each release. Quality tool and company.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The experience has been wonderful. Building the bench pilot is very straight forward, instructions were clear and the video was great. Highly recommend getting one, sure frees up your time to do other tasks.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Love it, have done several small projects so far. This is a game changer if you need to do any small batch work. My only problem is that I sometimes find myself just watching it work on its own instead of stepping away and doing something else:)”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I have throughly enjoyed using the Bench Pilot and have made 12 bottle openers for Christmas presents and a jewelry keepsake oval box with lid.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I’ve been out of woodworking for the last 3 years (motorcycles) and when the Bench Pilot was announced last spring, I got excited about making again. I’ve had the bench pilot for a week now, and it’s been an amazing experience – high quality build and parts, exceptional functionality – a must own”
Here’s a video from one of our customers, showing some of the incredible things enabled by BenchPilot: