Shaper Origin dovetail joinery system.

It's all about precisely removing waste.

Shaper Origin and Workstation are still pretty new to our woodworking world, but I’ve gotten to spend lots of time with the system over the last year. And it’s really quite incredible. Using a series of domino-looking shapes on a flat surface, the Origin is able to tell precisely where the machine is. As you cut, the router inside the Origin moves within the base, allowing it to precisely track a line (even if you aren’t able to do it with just your body). It will cut precisely to the line, inside or outside the line, and even offset from the line by a fixed amount.

Woodworking really boils down to being able to cut precisely to layout lines, and that’s what the Origin excels at. It’s a handheld CNC router that you can use on almost any flat surface, whether that’s an inlay on the lid of a tool chest, a medallion on a hardwood floor or the edge of a board (as we’ll explore here).

Making Tails and Pins

Dovetail joinery comes down to accurately removing waste between tails and pins. If you know the size and angle of your tails, you can make pins to match. With a clear image of those dimensions, it’s simply a matter of cutting to those lines. Shaper has developed a Fusion 360 file that automatically generates the SVG files needed to cut dovetails with Origin. You input the width and thickness of your stock, the angle and diameter of your dovetail bit, the diameter of your straight bit, and the export two files: one for the tails and one for the pins.

Shaper’s Workstation is what makes the cutting process simple and repeatable. There are registration pins that allow you to accurately

place each board every time, in relation to your digital workspace. Two clamps firmly hold the board in place. The replaceable MDF waste board provides a firm backer (and minimizes risk of cutting into aluminum Workstation). And outboard support for the base of the Origin so you can safely route end and edge grain.

Cutting the Tails

With your stock milled to size (I’m using 11" wide poplar here), mark the front edge of all of your pieces (I use an ×). Start with a tail board, and the × edge against the left-hand registration pins on the Workstation. Clamp it in place with the top edge of the board flush with the top of the Workstation and scan your workspace.

Using a 1/4" registration pin (Shaper recommends flipping the 1/4" V bit that comes with the machine in the collet), lay out a grid (I used a 1/2" grid to accommodate the 1/2" offset in the tails file), using the front edge of the board and the side of the board with the × on it. Then load your tails file and place it on the grid (the 1/2" offset means the corner of the cutting path will be 1/2" to the left of the origin, so the tails are centered on the board).

Change out the bit for your dovetail bit and perform the Z-touch—the Origin will slowly lower the bit until it contacts the top edge of the board to orient itself in the Z axis.

Now it’s time to cut. You’ll be making a full, 3/4"- depth cut with your dovetail bit in the end grain of your board. (Unfortunately, you can’t make multiple passes at different depths, because that messes up the shape of the tail.)

Cut the tails in three passes, using the inside cut and pocketing cut functions on the Origin. First, do an inside cut with a 0.01" offset (meaning you’ll cut 0.01" inside the cut line). Then, do a pocketing cut to clear out the waste. Finally, do an inside cut with no offset, to cut right to the line. Flip the board end for end, making sure the × stays on the lefthand side of the board, and repeat.

Cutting the Pins

Because the walls of the pins are completely vertical (not angled like the tails are), you can use a straight bit to cut the pins (make sure to verify the diameter of your bit and Z-touch after a bit change—origin reminds you, too). Again, clamp your pin board in place with the marked × side against the left-hand registration pins. Create the grid and place the cut file. I like to cut tails in three passes, too. Two pocketing passes of 3/8" depth at a 0.01" offset hog out most of the waste between the pins. Then I’ll make a full 3/4" depth inside pass with a 0.003" offset, which leaves the pins slightly oversize.

The offset is where you fine-tune the fit of the joint. A 0.005" offset took a lot of effort to put the joint together. No offset, and the joint was too loose. I settled on a 0.003" offset for a great-fitting joint. Of course, I’d recommend you cut a couple practice joints to dial in the fit before you move to your actual work pieces.

To cut the pins on the other end of the board, you rotate the workpiece so the marked × side is on now on the right-hand side of the workstation. You still align it against the left-hand registration pins, but you set up the grid using the righthand corner of the board for the origin. That ensures both sides are cut from the same reference face. Then repeat for the other pin board.

All Together

With precisely machined stock, you’ll get great-fitting joints. Once you get the hang of the order of operations, you’ll be able to cut a box’s worth of joints in 30 minutes (or less). And there’s no layout!

The equally spaced pins and tails don’t necessarily have the charm of hand-cut dovetails, but they’re still strong and functional, and look just as good as those you can cut with most router dovetail jigs. And, with some measuring and figuring, you could create cut files that have skinnier pins and wider tails. That’s my next challenge. PW

4 The on-screen grid is aligned to your board using three registration points (two on the face of the board, and one on the edge), measured with a reference pin in the router's collet, to create the origin point. I use a 1/2" grid with the origin point being either the left-hand or right-hand corner of the board closet to me.

1 I used Shaper's dovetail generator for Fusion 360. Though the image looks complicated, it's really just generating two SVG files used for cutting the dovetails. Input the details of your stock and router bit, number of pins, and the file is updated to your specific joint, with equally spaced pins and tails.

3 There are two registration pins on each side of the Workstation to square your stock (I only use the lefthand registration pins here). There's a replaceable waste board, as the bits will exit the back of the board while you're routing pins and tails.

2 The cutting height of the dovetail bit needs to be equal to or taller than the thickness of the material you're cutting. The bit on the left is suitable for 1/2" thick material but wouldn't work with 3/4" material. The bit on the right has a cutting height just over 3/4" and is the one I used for my 3/4" thick case materials.

7 You use a straight bit to cut the pins, which means you can cut in multiple passes down to the depth of the socket. Take two 3/8" passes with a 0.01" offset, going down to the full 3/4" depth. Cutting right to the line on both the tail cut and pin cut might make the fit looser than you want (as I found with this popular). Adjusting the fit is as simple as adjusting the offset for the pins. I found a 0.003" offset gives me a fit that's just right.

5 Cutting the tails is the trickiest part of this process. Because of the geometry of the bit, you make one pass at full depth. If you move outside the cut path or otherwise cause an error, the bit quickly retracts. If that happens when you're cutting tails, there's a good chance the bit will remove a portion of the tail as it retracts. Move slowly and deliberately, with plenty of space between the front of the board and the Workstation support bar.

6 When cutting tails, I set a 0.01" offset for the first pass to define the shape. I come back and make a second pocketing pass to hog out the waste. Then I make a final with no offset to remove that final bit of wood and leave a clean surface.

10 The joint right off the machine fits just as good or better than almost any other dovetail joints I’ve cut. The main limitations to this system are the size of the Workstation and the depth of cut on the router bit. The Origin supports up to a 1/4" collect, so that limits the size of the router bit you can use (I wouldn’t want to make a pass more than 3/4" deep anyway).

9 After you’ve cut the first set of tails, rotate the board 180°, so the × is now on the right-hand side. Set your grid with its origin on the right-hand corner and use that origin to position the cutting path. This minimizes the change of any compounding error.

8 Cutting joints that all go together to create a square box means paying attention the faces and edges when you’re laying out your pin boards and tail boards. I put an × on the front edge of the four boards, and it’s very important to pay attention to orientation when you’re routing the pin boards.