Craftsman CompuCarve

[northcountry]

as a carved sign shop wholesaler and CnC dealer,I own 3 Gerber routers4'x8' ft and an AXYZ 5'x14' those sears units will not hold up long at all.. for real use, cute as they are... not a real production machine more of a novelty. I rebuild CnC units for a living- trust me, that shop bot is a thousand times the machine and its not even in the 40k-70k league that I use and work on! the shopbot is a much better choice to get into the industry..... or buy a unit from me with the spare 40-100k you have in the mattress !!! routers are like saws.. bigger ... faster..... more expensive= GOOD!!! just my 2 cents

 

[del schisler]

carvewright machine

http://www.carvewright.com/ Make those machines Sears doesn't make them They just sell They have been out for a while If you buy eather one Thay are the same Just the name change

 

[joecool85]

Pretty cool, sears has them listed for $1800 now. If I had the money, I'd get one.

 

[dancan]

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?vertical=TOOL&pid=00921754000&adCell=P3&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

Read the reviews on the web page .

 

[woodshop]

It needs to be understood that my intention was not to knock the Compucarve/Carvewright. Like chainsaws, cameras and almost all tools both hand and machine tools, there are different levels. Some are designed to be used only in a certain way and are often priced accordingly. Only reason I didn't get a Compucarve back when I looked into them was their own literature explained the limited production ability of the machine. Since I needed something that could handle production runs on at least a weekly basis, the Compucarve wasn't for me. Not only did I need a larger routing area, but I'd probably burn one up in a month or so with all I wanted to do with it. Thus I held out for a CNC that was almost 5 times the cost of the Compucarve, but had that extra capability. The majority of woodworkers don't need that capability, and thus it might be a fine machine for the non-production shop. Comparing the Compucarve with the Shopbot is truly apples and oranges. A better analogy would be clocks and cars, they both have gears, but that's all they have in common. Different machines, different markets... they share little in common expect the basic principle upon which they operate.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I'm jealous!

Let's see some action pics!

opcorn:

 

[woodshop]

I'm jealous!

Let's see some action pics!

opcorn:

HA... well I'm jealous of your chainsaw that can slice a log wider than I am tall, and of your Bobcat to move logs and slabs around, and of all the room ya got there to slice and dice logs and store them... so there Trade ya my bot for an acre with access any day of the week!

Action shots... well I just got done surfacing a pretty interesting cookie with it 'bout an hour ago, was 5 trees growing together, but it's off the bot now. I'm still in the process of making product specific jigs and then writing the programs for them. This time of year (no major show till Fall) I'm not doing much making, it's more upgrade and shop/tool maintenance getting ready for product runs in August/Sept. When I do start using the bot for runs, I'll post some pics in this thread if people are interested, since it will be using wood I milled... guess that would fly although this IS a milling forum.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

HA... well I'm jealous of your chainsaw that can slice a log wider than I am tall, and of your Bobcat to move logs and slabs around, and of all the room ya got there to slice and dice logs and store them... so there Trade ya my bot for an acre with access any day of the week!

Action shots... well I just got done surfacing a pretty interesting cookie with it 'bout an hour ago, was 5 trees growing together, but it's off the bot now. I'm still in the process of making product specific jigs and then writing the programs for them. This time of year (no major show till Fall) I'm not doing much making, it's more upgrade and shop/tool maintenance getting ready for product runs in August/Sept. When I do start using the bot for runs, I'll post some pics in this thread if people are interested, since it will be using wood I milled... guess that would fly although this IS a milling forum.

LOL!

 

[stilhusk]

Well when I finally finish the band mill I'm making I will buy the electronics kit and make one of these: www.buildyourcnc.com
think I'll make the table a bit differenty though.

 

[NJANDPA]

Woodshop !!
How's it going with the Shopbot? Have you "milled" any items that you can show us? Have you been happy with your Buddy and the software?

Always interested in wood working tools. A CNC is a great way to modify milled wood.

 

[woodshop]

Woodshop !!
How's it going with the Shopbot? Have you "milled" any items that you can show us? Have you been happy with your Buddy and the software?

Always interested in wood working tools. A CNC is a great way to modify milled wood.

Yes very happy with both the machine and the software. It comes with some pretty sophisticated software that allows you to import a picture or pattern, and it then creates the toolpath (the actual program that tells the router how to move) for the bot. It also has a basic interface language, pretty rudimentary, that allows you to create your own toolpaths from scratch for less complicated operations. That is a lot like ancient BASIC computer language with simple IF THEN GOTO type commands along with the commands to move the bot in it's three axis. Example of that would be the program I finally fine tuned this afternoon that hogs out the center of the cracker holder I make below (I sold over $3k of these in last two years).

I used to make the basic shape, then lop off both ends, hog out the center on the table saw using dado blades, then glue them back together, sand and finish. If I make a run of say 20 or so, took about 22 minutes per. With the CNC now, I make the blank, but then set it into a jig and run the program that hogs out that center using a 1/2 inch spiral upcut bit. I do it in 4 passes, and it takes about 2 minutes routing altogether start to finish. For softer wood like redcedar I could probably run it faster and probably lop off 30-45 seconds more, but I'm playing it cautiously for now. At any rate, what that means is instead of taking 22 minutes to make, I can make the thing rough board to finished product in about 12 minutes now. I'm not charging any less for it, I still get $8 for them at shows, but because I can now make 5 per hours, I'm making more profit, and they are more precisely milled with less defects than the older method. Next time I make a run I will post some pics of the jig and bot in operation doing this for those that are interested.

 

[joecool85]

Yes very happy with both the machine and the software. It comes with some pretty sophisticated software that allows you to import a picture or pattern, and it then creates the toolpath (the actual program that tells the router how to move) for the bot. It also has a basic interface language, pretty rudimentary, that allows you to create your own toolpaths from scratch for less complicated operations. That is a lot like ancient BASIC computer language with simple IF THEN GOTO type commands along with the commands to move the bot in it's three axis. Example of that would be the program I finally fine tuned this afternoon that hogs out the center of the cracker holder I make below (I sold over $3k of these in last two years).

I used to make the basic shape, then lop off both ends, hog out the center on the table saw using dado blades, then glue them back together, sand and finish. If I make a run of say 20 or so, took about 22 minutes per. With the CNC now, I make the blank, but then set it into a jig and run the program that hogs out that center using a 1/2 inch spiral upcut bit. I do it in 4 passes, and it takes about 2 minutes routing altogether start to finish. For softer wood like redcedar I could probably run it faster and probably lop off 30-45 seconds more, but I'm playing it cautiously for now. At any rate, what that means is instead of taking 22 minutes to make, I can make the thing rough board to finished product in about 12 minutes now. I'm not charging any less for it, I still get $8 for them at shows, but because I can now make 5 per hours, I'm making more profit, and they are more precisely milled with less defects than the older method. Next time I make a run I will post some pics of the jig and bot in operation doing this for those that are interested.

That's awesome! Is the wood stuff that you cut yourself?

 

[NJANDPA]

Thanks for the update! Glad it's working well for you. I'm ordering the 48 x 96 bot this week. Oh, very nice cracker holder..... great example of tree to finished product.

 

[slabmaster]

Here is an inexpensive one you can build yourself.

 

[parrisw]

I built one a few years ago, the software then was hard to use, there is some easier stuff now to use. I've never really got totally into it. It now sits under my workbench unused, I should really revive it. The learning curve was just too steep for me at the time, and I just have little time to learn another hobby. Anybody know of any good software, that will creat simple toolpaths for you??

 

[NJANDPA]

Here is one to look at.

http://www.machsupport.com/

Hope that helps.

 

[woodshop]

Interesting, that Mach3 at only $150 is pretty cheap for CNC software. Most of the commercial packages like the Vetric VcarvePro and Cut3D that come with the Shopbots cost the better part of a grand if you bought them separately. I agree there is a learning curve, but again, if you had any rudimentary computer language skills at all before, even simple BASIC, you won't have a problem. Even if you haven't, it's just not that complicated if you keep organized and keep good records of what you did so the next program you try and write you can build on that instead of always trying to reinvent the wheel. There are also tons of sample programs you can look at to see how somebody else tackled the particular problem you are trying to solve.

That's awesome! Is the wood stuff that you cut yourself?

Just about all the wood in my woodshop comes from wood I mill myself. Once in a while if I have a special need for a particular wood that I don't have enough of, I have to buy it, but at this point, I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say 95% of the wood I use in my shop I have milled myself.

 

[joecool85]

Just about all the wood in my woodshop comes from wood I mill myself. Once in a while if I have a special need for a particular wood that I don't have enough of, I have to buy it, but at this point, I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say 95% of the wood I use in my shop I have milled myself.

That's awesome. So, you mill it, but are they trees that you fell yourself or do you buy a certain type of tree then mill it yourself?

 

[woodshop]

That's awesome. So, you mill it, but are they trees that you fell yourself or do you buy a certain type of tree then mill it yourself?

Both... but I very rarely actually "buy" a log. Get more than I have time to mill for free. I was a logger for a paper company years ago, so I know how to drop a tree and still do occasionally if I need to. Most of the logs I mill though are blow downs or something next to somebodies house that was dropped by a professional tree company. As a logger I dropped most trees with a Franklin feller-buncher machine. Mostly 12-15 inch Virginia pine where we were in southern MD. Only when I ran into trees larger than the machine could hydraulically shear off (anything over 15") then I had to get out of my machine and fell it by hand. But point is this was out in the middle of the woods where it didn't matter if I screwed up and dropped one a little off. We ran mostly Homelite 925s with 28 inch bars. A powerful professional saw back in the early 80's. With a sharp chain it would tear through a 12 inch pine log like it was balsa wood.

 

[woodshop]

shopbot BT32 alpha in action

Some have asked, so here is an example of one of the ways I use my bot. Here is the bot, it comes from Shopbot with a 1/2 inch thick aluminum table drilled with 1/4 x 20 holes so you can attach your own table depending on what kind of hold down setups you will be using. I opted to build this T-track table on it because I will be using a lot of product specific jigs and needed lots of options orientation-wise to be able to attach the jigs to the table. So far it has worked out great.

Here is the bot with the cracker holder hogging-out jig attached to the table ready for a blank.

Here is a pic of that jig loaded with a blank ready to hog out. That small piece of aluminum angle iron in the bottom right corner of the jig is how I orient the router/bot to the jig when I set up for this job. I'm using a 1/2 inch solid carbide spiral upcut bit for the hogging, and I move the router close to the area of the angle, then nudge the jig till it's touching the inside of that angle. I then tell the bot that that point is zero. The program I wrote assumes that, and it then moves specific distances in the x and y axis to do the hogging. You can't see the bit in this pic because I still have the dust collector shell around the bit. I will remove that for a few pics so you can see the action better.

I played around and tried lots of methods to actually hog it out, and through trial and error came up with a method that make the cleanest cuts in most kinds of wood without the bit burning any corners or bottom. Method I came up with first goes around and bores a hole at each corner, and then works around the inside of the blank in 5 left and right passes to clean out a layer. The area I am hogging is 7/8 inch deep, and I found that I could do the whole hog out with one 7/8 inch deep cut, but I had to slow the bot down to do that, and it tended to burn some wood like maple and cherry. So I decided to write the program to do the hog in 4 "layers"... 3 hogs each 1/4 inch deep, and then one final 1/8 inch deep final hog. At the speed I set it for this job, it takes about 2 minutes start to finish all four passes.

Here is the finished rough product ready for the next step, sanding and 1/8 inch roundover all around, then drill the hole in the handle and finish it with walnut oil. The one on the bot is cherry, the row of holders on the table are red oak I milled in January, it was dry already.