anyone have a Origin AND Leigh Mortise FMT Pro

[mikeyr]

I have a Shaper Origin in the mail but I also own a Leigh FMT Pro for all my mortise and tenon work.  I see a lot of people talk about the ease of cutting mortise/tenons on the Origin, does any one have both and which one do you use the most ?

I basically see the Origin for my use as an engraving, inlay and maybe box joint tool and already questioning my purchase before it even arrives.  Its a tool I have wanted for several years and as my wife says, I will find uses for it once I have it.  I am asking here instead of the Shaper forum because I think here, I might be get better answers, over there they sure love the Origin.

I seem to be doing more bentwood laminations in my projects and the origin "should" excel at making the templates but at a very high price.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I have a Shaper Origin in the mail but I also own a Leigh FMT Pro for all my mortise and tenon work.  I see a lot of people talk about the ease of cutting mortise/tenons on the Origin, does any one have both and which one do you use the most ?

I basically see the Origin for my use as an engraving, inlay and maybe box joint tool and already questioning my purchase before it even arrives.  Its a tool I have wanted for several years and as my wife says, I will find uses for it once I have it.  I am asking here instead of the Shaper forum because I think here, I might be get better answers, over there they sure love the Origin.

I seem to be doing more bentwood laminations in my projects and the origin "should" excel at making the templates but at a very high price.

You won't regret your purchase, it's a fantastic tool.
If you do large mortise and tenons, like table legs, I would probably stick with the FMT. No sense in reinventing the wheel, even though tenons on long rails are a bit of a challenge.
Where the Origin shines is in making templates, cutting oddly shaped joinery, box joints, engraving, and it's really great for cutting pockets for tool storage. The Trace frame is a phenomenal add-on for that kind of thing. I have had mine for a few years and have done some pretty cool things with it. A couple of which I don't know how else I would have been able accomplish.

 

[thomlipiczky]

I have a Shaper Origin in the mail but I also own a Leigh FMT Pro for all my mortise and tenon work. I see a lot of people talk about the ease of cutting mortise/tenons on the Origin, does any one have both and which one do you use the most ?

I basically see the Origin for my use as an engraving, inlay and maybe box joint tool and already questioning my purchase before it even arrives. Its a tool I have wanted for several years and as my wife says, I will find uses for it once I have it. I am asking here instead of the Shaper forum because I think here, I might be get better answers, over there they sure love the Origin.

I seem to be doing more bentwood laminations in my projects and the origin "should" excel at making the templates but at a very high price.

I sold my Leigh dovetail PRO 24" set up when I bought my Shaper Origin. I found the set up time for the Leigh was laborious and tweaking to get a perfect fit was just tedious. The Shaper Origin makes this so much easier and more accurate. I just wish with either tool that there was a way of making pins skinnier than 1/4" (due to the shanks on the bits).

 

[rmhinden]

I sold my Leigh dovetail PRO 24" set up when I bought my Shaper Origin. I found the set up time for the Leigh was laborious and tweaking to get a perfect fit was just tedious. The Shaper Origin makes this so much easier and more accurate. I just wish with either tool that there was a way of making pins skinnier than 1/4" (due to the shanks on the bits).

I also sold my Leigh jig after getting Shaper Origin. I use my Shaper Origin and Workstation for a variety of things, including mortise and tenons.

Bob

 

[Ebuwan]

I dont have the FMT, but i do have the Leigh PRO 24.

As stated, the Leigh works great, but a lot of fumbling with it to get it perfect, and I spend a ton of time re-acquainting myself with the instructions every single time i use it.

Here is one way the Shaper shines; so I got it and used it a little bit when my kids where little; I then went through big chunks of time where I just did not have any woodworking time for myself. Unlike the Leigh, I hadn't touched the Origin in about 2 years for one stretch, was up and using it again in like 5 minutes. Leigh it would be a lot longer getting back into getting it set correctly.

I haven't made dovetails in a LONG time; when I first got into woodworking, as i'm sure happens to everyone else, I was super obsessed with Dovetails. 15 years later and two kids, got so many easier ways to connect stuff, and I just don't care about that stuff anymore, at least at this point.

Here are some pics of a Highlands Stickley inspired mirror I'm making for my mom (IGNORE the topper piece, i totally flubbed it small and made a new one already lol). I spent maybe 2 hours to get to that point? Got both sides from one piece, the top and bottom pieces leftover from another project:

15 minutes to dig through my lumber
30 minutes to Joint and Plane the rough lumber; Because I used Origin, i did not need to make any edges square, just the faces. Part of the time is I have to convert my Grizzly 12" Jointer/Planer combo between modes.
1 hour and 15 minutes to cut the Sides, Top and Bottom. Left and Right sides are different cut files, as there is a taper on the outside.

I plan to just use the Domino for all the joinery; I guess you could use the Origin, but not even that can match the speed of the old domino beast.

FOR YOUR SANITY - This was the first project where I finally bit the bullet and spent the $200 to unlock the Autopass feature. Holy crap, I should have paid for it forever ago. I assume they keep it separate because being under $3000 is more appealing. You set the depth it would take to get just through your piece, tap Autopass, and it will automaically setup a bunch of passes at different depths until you are done, all of with have a slight offset away from the line; and the last pass takes away the offset. Wow, using it was so nice and saved so much time, as you can just keep going around and around until done, instead of stopping, setting a new depth, starting again, etc.

So after about 2 hours, i got what you see in the pictures; To be fair, I'm not including making the SVG's in Inkscape though, maybe about 1.5 hours for that work.

Another note about this project specifically; the sides have the taper on the outside. Making a taper on a piece that long would probably be a giant PITA on the table saw. I have the really nice taper jig from Woodpecker; you could do it, but a pain.
Where the Origin did something that I might not have been able to otherwise; I was able to get the Left and Right out of one awesome piece of Qtr sawn White Oak. If i had to also joint an edge, rip on the saw, etc, i honestly do not believe i would have been able to squeeze out both sides from the single piece. I had my cuts overlap eachother a little bit, I should have taken a picture, there was such a tiny bit of waste.

I've actually had the Shaper Origin from the Kickstarter (so 2018ish), You will not regret it at all. I bought into the kickstarter at like 3am one day; it was when my 2nd kid was a few months old, and i was on overnight duties. It was the rare "scrolling and ordering at 3am" awesome buys.