Expanding the Shaper Origin Workstation: How large can the Shelf Top be?

[@Wyman642]

This was a great guide. It really makes the workstation more useful. Thanks also for posting the file on Shaper for public downloading!

[@Woodensoul]

Most welcome, happy to help fellow Shaper Origin users 👊🏼

[@williamskinner2413]

Just made this today, worked out great!! Thank you so much for your time and sharing your efforts with SO! We in the community truly appreciate it!!

[@Woodensoul]

Thanks for the positive feedback, William. I am super pumped if this is appreciated and if it helps you to have more fun with your Shaper Origin! Have fun building!

[@joeclemmer6072]

Brand new to this tool… however as soon as I saw the workstation I saw the need for a larger workspace. You Nailed it!! Awesome and Thank you for sharing.

[@Woodensoul]

Thank you so much for the feedback, Joe. Very happy to hear this was useful, and welcome to the Shaper Origin family. You will have a lot of fun with this tool!

[@DirkfromDayton]

Made one today and it is a great improvement. Great video and great plans. Thanks.

[@Woodensoul]

Wonderful - I am pumped if this was helpful. Happy building!

[@DebHeadworth]

Thanks for figuring out the measurements on this one! :)

[@Woodensoul]

Most welcome 👊🏼

[@mrnobelnigel]

Great files. I cut the large shelf this morning using your design. I love the way the Origin ‘drills’ the holes. Thanks for sharing 👍

[@Woodensoul]

Glad to hear this was helpful Paul. Yeah, the spiral cut is really very satisfying 🤣 Have fun 🤩

[@geef0813]

Just got my workstation. Can’t wait to extend the table now.

[@Woodensoul]

Wonderful!! Enjoy, it‘s so much fun!!

[@hhanger1]

I made a new one for my workstation this past Sunday. Your design worked perfectly. The Helix mode worked exactly as it should. Thanks! BTW, out of the blue, Shaper sent me another SO. I reached out to them and they realized someone in the fulfillment area screwed up. Hoping they send me a couple rolls of shaper tape for my honesty! ha ha!!

[@Woodensoul]

Wow - really?!? Holy crap, what a story! I admire your strength and honesty, not sure I would have been able to withstand, I want a second SO for my second workshop so badly, now I have to move it from one to the other over and over again... I know, first world problem 😆 Glad my design worked, and thanks for the feedback...

[@hhanger1]

@@Woodensoul yeah, at the end of the day you have to live with yourself and used it as a teachable event for my son about doing the right thing. I think they would have figured it out at some point anyway.

[@Woodensoul]

Excellent point 😁

[@comfortablynumb1934]

I use a slightly wider countersink hole that accommodates a 6mm washer. That provides more stability than just the 6mm hex bolt going through MDF.

[@Woodensoul]

Ah… good idea 👍🏼

[@johnfrazier9327]

Super psyched on this, thank you. I just made a few tables of large and medium variety with some scrap MDF I had left over. One tip I might give is on the smaller bore for the screw holes, cut them at like -.005" offset or more to ease up the tolerances.

[@Woodensoul]

Nice! Happy this was helpful and thanks for the tip with the offset 😁

[@zebalewski1]

I love that you used shaper to create the whole thing vs a drill press, forstner bits, and table saw! #ShaperVersatility

[@Woodensoul]

Haha, yeah, I love that tool so much that I try to use it where I can...

[@phillypauly]

thank You for this and the files! I love my new workstation (even more now) : )

[@Woodensoul]

Hey Paul. Most welcome - glad this makes you love your workstation even more. I also love it, it's so convenient... :D

[@kiwdwks]

Awesome...thank you. Your videos have been a great help!

[@Woodensoul]

Most welcome, glad you found them helpful 😁

[@PeteLewton]

Thank you, this will be my next project

[@Woodensoul]

Most welcome, Pete! Have fun with your Shaper Origin 😁🤩

[@sanfordasman5501]

Actually, you can extend the spoil board to beyond 31 cm (up to the length that can be rigidly supported) by adding tape to the portion of the work piece closest to the Workstation and including it in your scan.

[@Woodensoul]

Correct, I did that multiple times and it works well...

[@kiwdwks]

Awesome...thank you!

[@Woodensoul]

Most welcome - have fun 😎

[@Crusader19222]

Hi nice tool! I came across your video after I build an similar extension myself. In addition I used a T-slot cutter and added some T-slots parallel and perpendicular to the workstation to clamp peaces of wood. Works perfectly when the clamps are sitting out of reach of the shaper origin. An other option would be to add holes like on a MFT. Greetings from Germany

[@Woodensoul]

Hey. Sounds cool. Is it something like this one here? hub.shapertools.com/creators/5d9e1478d64405000fbe4f78/shares/5de33b00b18bf3000f9c3536

[@Crusader19222]

@@Woodensoul Kind of. Imagine your extension with evenly distributed holes and t-slots like they are on MFTs to clamp your workpeace onto it. I don't like double sided tape as the drill bit gets clotted.

[@Woodensoul]

@@Crusader19222 wow - that is a fantastic idea! did you put the template on ShaperHub?

[@Crusader19222]

@@Woodensoul Sorry, I did not use a template, I just used the router table and added the t-slots roughly evenly distributed. Two reasons for that: a drill bit for t-slots needs to be on its final level BEFORE touching the wood and secondly there is no precision required - any place is just fine to hold the clamps. I really love the shaper origin and the workstation but still there are jobs done more easily with other tools 😊

[@Aciim6]

tenk ju brato

[@zachyindra7889]

Great video! I just got my Workstation and Shaper Origin and I have a quick question: do you find you have issues with this setup when working close to the near side edge?I ask because you won't be able to use the support bar with this extended shelf. Unless you have something of equal thickness to your stock, don't you run the risk of the router not sitting flat when working near that edge? I like the idea of extending the space available, but it seems like you would still run into the issue of needing to use extra pieces to keep things co-planer which was a big part of why I got the Workstation.

[@Woodensoul]

You are absolutely right, removing the back bar (the side bars don’t provide much stability, because they aren’t coplanar to the domino field) can reduce stability. It’s not a question of “either/or”. Both the small and large shelves are useful, depending your use case. It depends on your workpiece size.

[@jacedispenza]

What is the maximum width you can use? You said ideally 30cm - is that the maximum width possible while still seeing the markers?

[@Woodensoul]

You can go wider and rotate the SO accordingly, but you have to use the workstation without the arms

[@olivepressdesign]

Do you think it’s worth getting the work station? And if yes, why? Thanks 😊

[@Woodensoul]

I love it, but I understand it’s expensive. I work with a lot of small pieces (leftovers from my table projects), and the workstation allows that easily. Also it’s really easy to do joints. But you can build a workstation yourself with the Shaper (there are several projects on the hub) if you prefer.

[@KennethReedFRCA]

I love the concept of a larger shelf, but when I linked to the SVG files the scale was really small, like about, but not exactly 10% of real size. Suggestions? I ended up making my own drawing in SO, but would like to know about scaling as yours is not the only thing that I have used from the Shaper Hub that were just unusable due to scaling problems. Thanks for you help; I've enjoyed watching your videos about the SO.

[@Woodensoul]

Hi Kenneth. Oh wow, that is super weird. I have never experienced that. My first instinct is that this might be a problem in your device. I recommend reaching out to Shaper's support and asking for help. The SVG on the Shaper Hub is definitively of the right dimensions. Given that these scaling problems happen with multiple files, I think this is something you need to report... Sorry about that

[@Woodensoul]

I have contacted Shaper support and they have told me how to fix the problem. Apparently it's something in the export settings when creating the SVG.

[@ernstlemm9379]

Any idea what the position accuracy is when the markers are far away from the machine?

[@Woodensoul]

I haven't observed any effects of the tape being close or far. The camera does indicate you when it sees little tape and pulls up the spindle when it doesn't see enough tape

[@Jeggo65]

Hello. Is there any reason, why the shelf top is only 31cm wide and not approx. 42cm? I am going to make an extended shelf top with 31cm x 42cm. I would like to make a small MFT out of it and use several 3D printed parts on it to clamp work pieces. BTW if you put dominos on the "Workstation" logo, you could extend the workspace even a little more.

[@Woodensoul]

You can make it as long as you want, nut the camera loses track after 31cm, si you need to place tape on your workpiece to extend the range...

[@Jeggo65]

@@Woodensoul The original shelf top is roughly 11,5cm x 31cm. That I can extend the 11,5cm to 31cm or even more is clear and good shown in your video. But what about the original width of 31cm. There is enough space left to extend it to 42cm. Is it possible the extend this dimension to 42cm? At the moment I can not see any reason against this.

[@Woodensoul]

Ah, got you! Yes, you can do that, if you remove the side bars of the workstation. I didn’t need that yet, but see no reason why this wouldn’t work

[@Jeggo65]

@@Woodensoul 42cm is between the side bars. So I will give it a try the next weekend. If everything works as desired, I will create a project on Shaper Hub.

[@Woodensoul]

Excellent idea!

[@DormantIdeasNIQ]

This HOW far(??) the Origin can see the markers... is that he 11.5 max width of the Shaper extension? ...have you measured it?

[@Woodensoul]

Yeah, thats the farthest the Shaper can (barely) see the tape. If you want to go rather, you need to stick tape in between. Yeah, as shown in the video, I have measured it.

[@rodrigovillegas9163]

Hola Javier gracias por compartir tus ideas una pregunta las medidas del espesor cual serian la minima ??

[@Woodensoul]

Hola Rodrigo. De nada. La minima minima serian unos 8mm diria. 4mm para el tornillo y otros 3-4 para la cabeza del tornillo...

[@rodrigovillegas9163]

@@Woodensoul graciasJavier

[@cretin1979]

I noticed on your screen during the cutting explanation, there was an icon at the bottom for "helix". I don't think I have ever seen that. What is it?

[@Woodensoul]

Hey. That is for the Helix cutting mode. More about that feature here: support.shapertools.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003345073-Helix-Mode

[@dcpoke1]

Do you get any deflection our of square with the weight of the Origin out so far from domino table?

[@Woodensoul]

No, astonishingly it stays pretty straight and works like a charm. But make sure to use a thick enough MDF board.

[@ryazwinski]

yea I was thinking the same, was also concerned about the significant increase in torque having weight so far out.. I suppose a support leg would remove those stressors @dcpoke1 @@Woodensoul

[@UJLD]

When did you order it? I am still waiting since March.

[@Woodensoul]

I ordered the first day pre-order was available to me (March 17th). You should get it hopefully anytime 🙏

[@UJLD]

@@Woodensoul Thank you! I ordered it the same day you too. They shipping mine by September....what?!?! Thank you for the answer and your awesome videos!

[@Woodensoul]

September!?!? That is outrageous! In what country? Thanks for your kind words regarding my videos 😀

[@UJLD]

@@Woodensoul United States of America. KY 👍👍👍

[@Woodensoul]

Really? I would have thought you guys get them first. I bought it in Switzerland... Well, now you know how we always feel, getting everything much later than you 😆😫

[@joserodriguez4040]

Me parecen geniales pero como dije antes deben traducirlos al español.

[@Woodensoul]

Hola Jose. Todos mis videos tienen subtítulos en español. Aprieta el botón “CC” en el player.

[@joserodriguez4040]

Gracias por tu atencion , un saludo desde Bogota Colombia.

[@Woodensoul]

@@joserodriguez4040 De nada. Funciono? Saludos desde Suiza...

[@joserodriguez4040]

@@Woodensoul cual es el precio alla ?

[@Woodensoul]

Para el Shaper Origin? 2890.- €

[@joserodriguez4040]

Solicito los tutoriales en español, si no es molestia.

[@Woodensoul]

Hola Jose. Todos mis videos tienen subtítulos en español. Aprieta el botón “CC” en el player.