XCarve from inventables

[djduvall]

Good afternoon!

Let me begin by saying that I am about as new/green as they come. I have quite a bit of experience in the wood shop and am looking for a way to take my sign making to the next level. However, I have zero experience with CNC.

I recently stumbled across a website called inventables.com and their newest product, Xcarve. From the other kits I have seen around the web this one looks almost too good to be true. I was hoping that here I could get some expert input on this device.

As I have no previous experience with the software necessary to run a commercial CNC the Easel program seems like a logical jumping off point.

I suppose that my real question here is am I going to be disappointed with the capabilities/limitations of this machine after I get into it?

Thanks for the help!

Dallas

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[ger21]

[quote]
I suppose that my real question here is am I going to be disappointed with the capabilities/limitations of this machine after I get into it?[QUOTE]

That's impossible to answer without knowing your expectations.

I can tell you that the vast majority of members that post here would consider the X Carve a lightweight toy.

If you're a serious woodworker, with decent quality equipment, then, yes, I think you'll be disappointed.

I don't consider that a "commercial" machine.

And Easel is typically used by hobbiests with these small machines. I don't have any experience with it, and you won't find much if any discussion on it here.

[Joe Jones]

Okay ... found you! Sheesh! My two functional brain cells are running at about 40% today.

Anyway, this forum is the BEST place to get information on all things CNC.

I am looking forward to showing you my Samson 510 table and doing some experiments.

I bought a chunk of scrap aluminum from my local steel yard today. Well, if $103.00 can be considered "scrap." It is a two-foot piece of aluminum channel with a 9/16" thick web, about 8 inches wide. It will be enough to do some preliminary experiments with the router, to see if I can cut aluminum with my machine.

Welcome to CNCzone!

[djduvall]

[QUOTE=ger21;1681368][quote]
I suppose that my real question here is am I going to be disappointed with the capabilities/limitations of this machine after I get into it?

That's impossible to answer without knowing your expectations.

I can tell you that the vast majority of members that post here would consider the X Carve a lightweight toy.

If you're a serious woodworker, with decent quality equipment, then, yes, I think you'll be disappointed.

I don't consider that a "commercial" machine.

And Easel is typically used by hobbiests with these small machines. I don't have any experience with it, and you won't find much if any discussion on it here.

Thank you for your input! I was obviously not suggesting that this was a commercial device, rather that I have no clue where to begin with a commercial one. this one seems like it might be a nice place to start. Thanks again!

[AllenMassey]

Did you decide to purchase the X-Carve? I know that compared to the commercial machines that most of the people use on this forum it is lacking in a lot of the specs, but for a hobbyist machine it has been working great for me. I upgraded the spindle and I have about 100 hours of 2D and 2.5D carving with it. It does require regular tuning and cleaning, but I have found that if you take care of it, it can do very good work.

[jrg6269]

I purchased the X-Carve about a year ago. I found that Easel was not for me but I found that UGS (Universal Code Sender, open source, free) works well. The only complaints I have about the X-Carve is that the Z axis is kind of soft. If you have to stop and restart a cut, you will find after re-zeroing the machine, that you were losing a few hundredth per z-pass when cutting 3D. I just ordered a upgrade fom CNC4NEWBIE.com which is a Z axis made specifically for the X-Carve. My second DIY build was built with linear slides, ball screws, and extruded aluminum from 20/80. I used one of their Z-axis assemblies and was very impressed. The machine was fine, but in the ended up having too much flex in the Y-axis, so I decided to try the X-Carve, having spent close to a year building the previous machine from scratch. I think with this upgrade I will get the precision I need for wood. I'll repost when I have it all assembled and tested.

I also forgot to mention that I upgraded to a water cooled spindle. The "Quiet Cut" that I purchased with the original machine burned out after about 80 hours of cutting. It is really just a low power router with rather crappy bearings. If you don't want to deal with the water cooling, and you are just starting out a Bosch Colt or DeWalt is probably fine, since they will last far longer that the "Quiet Cut." The spindle/VFD route is not for the faint of heart, lots of frustration, questions in the forums (thanks for all the help to the community : ) but I finally have a solid setup that works.