TTS Aquires Shaper Tools

[Cheese]

And here is the official announcement from Shaper.

Shaper is now part of TTS

Happy New Year, everyone! We have some big news to start the year off with a bang… Shaper Tools has been acquired by TTS Tooltechnic Systems. That’s right - we’re merging with the best in the business and joining other amazing TTS group companies including Festool, Sawstop, Tanos, Cleantec and others.

TTS is a third-generation family-owned company based in Wendlingen, Germany, and employs more than 3,000 people around the world. If you’ve been following our story closely, you know we’ve enjoyed a productive and symbiotic relationship with TTS already - TTS currently supplies the SM1 router spindle in every Shaper Origin, and Origin ships in a custom Shaper Systainer from Tanos. The Shaper team will remain headquartered in San Francisco, where we plan to continue doing exactly what we do best: developing entirely new categories of tools that merge human intuition with robotic precision.

We couldn’t be more proud and excited to tap into the incredible wealth of knowledge and resources that TTS is able to provide, which will allow us to accelerate our plans for bringing Origin and other exciting Shaper products to a global stage. To all of our earliest customers and fans who have been cheering us on since the beginning: THANK YOU.

You continue to inspire us to build the best tools in the world.

Joe Hebenstreit, CEO

 

[PeterJJames13]

So I agree the news makes sense. But what about the eventual cost increase? I don't think if the price of the machine goes north of 3K that will be very encouraging. We all know Festool products just keep getting more expensive. So hopefully the price will remain fixed during the transition and into the next generation. Any thoughts?

One further note what about that $99 shipping? And the warranty? Both need some tweaking.

I agree about the price increase speculation. That's why I pulled the trigger on mine this week (scheduled to ship later this month). Regarding the $99 shipping - that was a tough one to swallow. My guess is they are trying to upgrade customers to "Shaper Pro" by offering more value there - free shipping, fast replacement, instant shipping (no waiting), etc. That wasn't important for me as I'm really not in a rush to receive it. What I did find weird, but welcome, was on my order there was a $100 discount on it. So, basically, it shipped for free for me. Don't ask me how I got it - I couldn't tell you. So I paid $2498. Not as good a deal as others who got in before me. But that's ok. I wasn't ready back then.

 

[Grev]

I've been on the fence, but just ordered mine.  Sam @ Shaper Tools gave me a free roll of tape at Festool Connect, so I had to buy one ... otherwise the tape would be wasted!  At least that's what I told my wife.

 

[fritter63]

A good friend of mine got his Shaper last year. We decided to do a side by side comparison with my CNC Router Parts Pro 4x2 machine (about a 6K investment), running a 2.2 kW Chinese spindle (.0005 advertised TIR). Pictured below are the results. As you can see from actual measurements, his cuts ended up closer to target than mine, however that is likely due to two factors outside of linear movement control: 1) TIR on the spindle (amplified by the fact that I tend to run long bits for reach) and 2) Bit diameter compensation (you have to set the bit to it's measured diameter rather then advertised to get it accurate.

Overall, I'm impressed. The quality of the cuts is VERY good.

To me, one of the best use cases for this tool in WW is for making dovetails (with a self made vertical table jig). You can say goodbye to that temperamental Leigh jig, or to the more accurate but fixed spacing on other jigs. This one gives you the best of both worlds.

 

[PeterJJames13]

Wow! Talk about timing. I was watching this video as this post came up....

 

[fritter63]

It should be possible to do this with the Shaper as well.