Shaper Origin, the world’s first handheld CNC machine, can now be transformed into the world’s most user-friendly, fully autonomous benchtop gantry CNC machine. In my capacity as Shaper’s head of engineering, I led the team that conceptualized, designed, and brought into mass production, Shaper BenchPilot. We designed BenchPilot to be incredibly easy to use – simply snap Origin in and start your cut – all toolpathing is done automatically. Need to do a really BIG cut? No problem – just snap Origin out of BenchPilot and you are back to having an unlimited work envelope. Through ongoing software updates and forward thinking hardware design, we’ve built BenchPilot to support both Gen1 (launched 9 years before BenchPilot!) and Gen2 Origin. Shaper Origin is the “brain of the operation” when using BenchPilot – it sends motion commands wirelessly to BenchPilot, telling it how it wants to be moved around the workpiece to cut out the desired design. Origin’s fine-tuned autocorrection motion control system continues to operate during cuts, ensuring excellent cut quality. BenchPilot seamlessly integrates with Shaper Workstation (or can be used without it), and also benefits from our Shelf Upgrade Kit for Workstation, which we’ve released simultaneously with BenchPilot. Here’s a video that shows just how intuitive BenchPilot is to use:
BenchPilot has won several awards for what it brings to the woodworking industry: The AWFS Visionary Award and the Woodworking Network Editor’s Choice Award.
Reviews from customers have been overwhelmingly positive – you can check some out here.
BenchPilot has meaningfully changed the way craftspeople work. Here’s an example of a paraplegic user on our forum who’s been able to continue making beautiful projects thanks to BenchPilot: Post on the Shaper Forum
Here’s a great video from one of our customers using BenchPilot: