Compucarve?

[jeff_1064]

Anyone get the compucarve from sears yet? I am thinking of buying one for my shop (and high school students) and I just wanted to know what anyone thought of it if they had it....what kind of quality is it? how often do you need a new bit? how easy is the software to run? can you buy parts from any sears store?

Jeff

[Ken Massingale]

Search on Woodnet. Looks like the Compucarve is having birthing issues.

[bmyers]

There have been a few posts here:

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...ht=carvewright

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...ht=carvewright

I have had one for about 8 months. Sears Compucarve AKA Carvewright.

You can download the trial software from http://www.carvewright.com to check it out.

Although I hate saying this in fear of Murphy's Law kicking my butt, I haven't had any problems that were not related to a loose nut behind the keyboard. It's been trouble free.

When they started selling through Sears in Jan-07, there was a problem with units shipping with the wrong firmware and some people brought home a $1900 paper weight. That's been fixed also.

It's basically a dot matrix printer for wood, gone 3D. Many of the same principles. Wood goes back and forth on rollers, router head goes back and forth, up and down on rails, chips fly..

The software lets you import JPG and clipboard objects into "Designer" which transforms it onto the wood. You can do lettering and there is a library of objects to add to your work. So you have to be 1/2 graphic artist, 1/2 woodworker, and 1/2 computer geek to field any other problems that might come up.

It is on the bleeding edge so expect to bleed sometimes. I've been enjoying mine very much over the 8 months I've had it. For sign making it's really good. But I've seen people make 3D carved fish trophies, wooden gears, knobs, templates, toy airplanes, all kinds of stuff.

In the future the software is supposed to let you import G code like every other CNC machine and carve that. That will be a big step forward for this machine. For now, you have to import JPG's as gray scale. It interprets gray scale as white= wood uncut, black = deepest cut it can make.

Here are a couple projects I've done.

As far as having one in a classroom I'd say, maybe. If you can get an extended warrenty, I think it comes with a 2 year or 50 hours of runtime, whichever comes first. If you can get that extended from Sears then don't worry about it.

Parts are not available through the normal Sears outlets as far as I'm aware, that may change.

Bit's last a good long time which is good because a carving bit is about $20-25 + shipping.

The software would be easy for high school kids to run after some practice. I'd love to see what your high schoolers would come up with. It's an excellent creative outlet for young minds..




Bill

[MilDoc]

Thanks for your experience Bill. Been looking at one myself.

[Ken Massingale]

Thanks Bill. It's good to hear the other side. But, I'm afraid I'll have to wait for the HF knockoff! ;-(

[bmyers]

Thanks Bill. It's good to hear the other side. But, I'm afraid I'll have to wait for the HF knockoff! ;-(

Yeah wouldn't THAT be cool. I think it's made in China but it weighs over 100 lbs so I've never flipped it over to see.

I got VERY VERY lucky and found 1 used and traded a bunch of wood working & computer stuff for it. Cash out of pocket was 0. They were happy and I was happy. I think I was a little happier....


There is a scanner probe available also ($300). This would allow you to feed in a carved molding or some other releive carving save it and reproduce it. Great for restoration work.


Any other questions feel free to ask.

Bill


Edit: Interesting factoid. The guy that started the company used to work for NASA. Thats why on their samples page you see a NASA logo carved up.