I teach CNC basics to high school students using the 1000x1000 x-carve. VERY happy with the x-carve, easel, and Inventable's service. It is a $2500 machine that does one heck of a job! Great support community. I am looking at a $15,000-$25,000 machine for personal/business use. You can not compare them. IMHO it performs better than many $4-8,000 machines. It is an excellent hobby machine(KIT) or a really slow small business machine...but it cuts great!
My recommendation to anyone buying an X-Carve...leave it pack upin the box...UNTIL you have built or sorted out your work surface... I built a folding work bench similar to one I saw here on you tube...er... don't fix it to a wall of your garage or house (if your workshop is under the main roof).Mine is on lockable castors and is only 600mm wide when folded. Once you have built your work surface, you then have a solid flat surface on which to build your X carve... this allows 2 things... first a greater deal of accuracy on your initial assembly second by building your work surface first you don't have to find a 'safe' spot for your X carve to avoid damage while you are building it.
To-the-point honest review. Thanks. It’s true. We learn so much building our tools from the ground up! As a former machinist, all points are true about incompetence being an awful judge of technology.
Run your speeds higher. 50 stars shouldn’t take more than 8 minutes. Use a 90 v bit, set the star depth at full depth. Put your settings at 200-250 ipm / 60 plunge / .68 depth per pass. That entire union shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes. I do full 30x16” flags with very detailed emblems and they take less than an hour. The xcarve is capable of way more than most people use it for. The easel default settings are less than 50% of actual speeds 1/4” 200-250 1/8” 150-175 1/16 - 75-100 1/32 - 35-50
Well, with the upgrade, I now can do this project in about an hour. My 90* V Bit is only rated for 40 ipm @18k RPM. Cuts super clean. I’ve ran the snake at 80ipm with the upgrade but it just doesn’t come out as clean. Im still learning but the upgrade gave me more confidence to go faster 😂
Thank.you for the honest discussion! As a guy looking to get into and and trying to decide which machine, this was very helpful and honest. I appreciate that!
I just bought an xcarve used and you make a good point about building it so you know how to fix it. i've had to bascially take it apart to get it square/level
Not sure how many people know this, I bought my machine (1000x1000) 18 months ago, and it came with easel pro for 3 years. It was a year later I realized I created an account on easel with a different email than the one i used when purchasing.
and...I will be spending over $1500 for Vectric aspire. Easel is FREE and Easel pro is very reasonable. Also, if you do not want to build it, spend $2-3,000 more for an ASSEMBLED machine.
Hay I just Watched Your Review About the X-Carve And you mentioned a upgrade bundle would you please tell me what that is all about . I am shopping for a CNC machine You sound like you are very happy with this machine . and if there is a upgrade that you recommend for this machine I would like to add it to the the order of the machine. I Am definitely not a professional but I would like to start out with a machine I can use and learn with. Thank you very much for all the information on this machine. Les Mckenzie
Great vid. I bet most of the people having issues with these could not even put together furniture from IKEA, but want to build a CNC. Truth is, a lot people that don't really have the skills to build/maintain/run these types of machines think but they can build and set up these things because it looks so easy. They have no idea how critical the set up and maintenance of the machine are to the performance.
Your comment reminds me of the time I was working for a friend in his garage, working on cars. He bought a lift, and declined paying the company to come in and set it up. Which was fine by me. But I asked him what his knowledge was on wiring and schematics. Anyways lift came and along with a couple other buddies. (Because friends are always cheaper labor lol). Did all the heavy lifting and drilling the holes for fixing the lift to the concrete floor. Believe it or not that was the easy part. Once everything was in place is when the problems started happening. It became apparent that my friend who was also my boss wasn't familiar with reading wiring diagrams. I'm not fluent with them but as long as I have the diagram I can study and figure them out pretty quick. IF I can see the diagram. But he was the type that wouldn't let me even look at it. He just would say you have no idea what you're looking at and his argument was that I was working for him and I guess not an electrician by trade. Yeah he was an @## like that. But after many failed attempts doing it his way he finally got frustrated enough to let me have a go at it. And he hovered over me so much trying to make me nervous while throwing out negative comments here and there. Nonetheless I was able to get the wiring sorted but I'll admit it had a lot to do with his unsuccessful attempts. I'll never forget the one try he did have it working and he wanted to test the safety feature that prevented you from putting a vehicle through the ceiling with a bar at the top across the top of the lift. When he tried to lift the car when it pushed the bar up it made a bad connection and sparks flew, and popped a breaker. I was the only one that thought it was funny. Can't remember how long it took but it was way over the typical installation time the technician's said when delivering the lift. Good times, that was the last time I've ever worked for a friend. It's not with it some times.
Good review. I have had my x-carve 1000x1000 since 2017. I am very happy with it. I have more then made my money back on selling my projects. In all fairness I have not made anything on it in over a year. However, as of earlier this month, I have started making projects again. I will be investing in the upgrade to the xcarve. Merry Christmas to me. Inventables has a great community of people that are wiling to help people. It sounds like the guy putting down the xcarve machine does not realize the problem is himself.
I've been thinking about getting one. Never used one and am nervous about putting it together and using for that matter. How hard is it or is it mostly just time consuming. Also how do you know what bits to use.
Well I mainly use the stock MDF that comes with the machine. A lot of people mount a sacrificial piece of MDF and make it their waste board. When I do a straight though carve, I normally use the glue and tape method on some 1/4” plywood attaching it to my waste board. Then glue and tape my project to the 1/4 piece
@@BigCountrysWay much appreciated! Gonna be watching as many of your vids as I can! I'm just learning about the cnc carving machines. I hope it isn't to hard to learn as I all ready use 3D printers and so far it looks similar.
I have the original x carve...I built this thing in 2016. I loved it to start with but I've come to learn to just how inaccurate/ unreliable/ poor build quality they are. Maybe they've improved over the years and I'm sure the pro is much better but these machines are more for hobbyists than businesses. As dog slow and inaccurate as they are you'd have a hard time making much money with them anyways. Gotta be honest, fanboying is not gonna win you any prizes unfortunately
I teach CNC basics to high school students using the 1000x1000 x-carve. VERY happy with the x-carve, easel, and Inventable's service. It is a $2500 machine that does one heck of a job! Great support community. I am looking at a $15,000-$25,000 machine for personal/business use. You can not compare them. IMHO it performs better than many $4-8,000 machines. It is an excellent hobby machine(KIT) or a really slow small business machine...but it cuts great!
100% boss! It’s a beast! The upgrade kit makes it 10x better. I highly recommend you getting one for your school!
Patrick: you stay in Cali?
@@jorgepulidovaladez9418 South Carolina....
I have a chance to get a X-Carve 1000mm cnc machine with dewalt router, bits etc for $600...great deal?
Absolutely! Sounds like you got yourself a steal!
My recommendation to anyone buying an X-Carve...leave it pack upin the box...UNTIL you have built or sorted out your work surface... I built a folding work bench similar to one I saw here on you tube...er... don't fix it to a wall of your garage or house (if your workshop is under the main roof).Mine is on lockable castors and is only 600mm wide when folded. Once you have built your work surface, you then have a solid flat surface on which to build your X carve... this allows 2 things... first a greater deal of accuracy on your initial assembly second by building your work surface first you don't have to find a 'safe' spot for your X carve to avoid damage while you are building it.
To-the-point honest review. Thanks. It’s true. We learn so much building our tools from the ground up! As a former machinist, all points are true about incompetence being an awful judge of technology.
Run your speeds higher. 50 stars shouldn’t take more than 8 minutes. Use a 90 v bit, set the star depth at full depth.
Put your settings at 200-250 ipm / 60 plunge / .68 depth per pass.
That entire union shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes. I do full 30x16” flags with very detailed emblems and they take less than an hour.
The xcarve is capable of way more than most people use it for. The easel default settings are less than 50% of actual speeds
1/4” 200-250
1/8” 150-175
1/16 - 75-100
1/32 - 35-50
Well, with the upgrade, I now can do this project in about an hour. My 90* V Bit is only rated for 40 ipm @18k RPM. Cuts super clean. I’ve ran the snake at 80ipm with the upgrade but it just doesn’t come out as clean. Im still learning but the upgrade gave me more confidence to go faster 😂
Starting to look into cnc basically for making stencils and the cnc machines seem endless and wondering if this X Carve would be a good choice.
Thank.you for the honest discussion! As a guy looking to get into and and trying to decide which machine, this was very helpful and honest. I appreciate that!
Thank you. I just ordered one this morning
I just bought an xcarve used and you make a good point about building it so you know how to fix it. i've had to bascially take it apart to get it square/level
Not sure how many people know this, I bought my machine (1000x1000) 18 months ago, and it came with easel pro for 3 years. It was a year later I realized I created an account on easel with a different email than the one i used when purchasing.
and...I will be spending over $1500 for Vectric aspire. Easel is FREE and Easel pro is very reasonable. Also, if you do not want to build it, spend $2-3,000 more for an ASSEMBLED machine.
Hay I just Watched Your Review About the X-Carve And you mentioned a upgrade bundle would you please tell me what that is all about . I am shopping for a CNC machine You sound like you are very happy with this machine . and if there is a upgrade that you recommend for this machine I would like to add it to the the order of the machine. I Am definitely not a professional but I would like to start out with a machine I can use and learn with. Thank you very much for all the information on this machine. Les Mckenzie
I have a couple videos on the upgrade :)
Thank You@@BigCountrysWay
I bought mine in 2020 I love it just did the upgrade kit on it. And now love it even more.
Good video. Thanks for the comments.
Great vid. I bet most of the people having issues with these could not even put together furniture from IKEA, but want to build a CNC.
Truth is, a lot people that don't really have the skills to build/maintain/run these types of machines think but they can build and set up these things because it looks so easy. They have no idea how critical the set up and maintenance of the machine are to the performance.
Your comment reminds me of the time I was working for a friend in his garage, working on cars.
He bought a lift, and declined paying the company to come in and set it up. Which was fine by me. But I asked him what his knowledge was on wiring and schematics. Anyways lift came and along with a couple other buddies. (Because friends are always cheaper labor lol).
Did all the heavy lifting and drilling the holes for fixing the lift to the concrete floor. Believe it or not that was the easy part.
Once everything was in place is when the problems started happening. It became apparent that my friend who was also my boss wasn't familiar with reading wiring diagrams. I'm not fluent with them but as long as I have the diagram I can study and figure them out pretty quick. IF I can see the diagram. But he was the type that wouldn't let me even look at it. He just would say you have no idea what you're looking at and his argument was that I was working for him and I guess not an electrician by trade. Yeah he was an @## like that.
But after many failed attempts doing it his way he finally got frustrated enough to let me have a go at it. And he hovered over me so much trying to make me nervous while throwing out negative comments here and there. Nonetheless I was able to get the wiring sorted but I'll admit it had a lot to do with his unsuccessful attempts.
I'll never forget the one try he did have it working and he wanted to test the safety feature that prevented you from putting a vehicle through the ceiling with a bar at the top across the top of the lift. When he tried to lift the car when it pushed the bar up it made a bad connection and sparks flew, and popped a breaker. I was the only one that thought it was funny. Can't remember how long it took but it was way over the typical installation time the technician's said when delivering the lift.
Good times, that was the last time I've ever worked for a friend. It's not with it some times.
Very well said!
Thank you for the truth!
Good review. I have had my x-carve 1000x1000 since 2017. I am very happy with it. I have more then made my money back on selling my projects. In all fairness I have not made anything on it in over a year. However, as of earlier this month, I have started making projects again. I will be investing in the upgrade to the xcarve. Merry Christmas to me. Inventables has a great community of people that are wiling to help people. It sounds like the guy putting down the xcarve machine does not realize the problem is himself.
I've been thinking about getting one. Never used one and am nervous about putting it together and using for that matter. How hard is it or is it mostly just time consuming. Also how do you know what bits to use.
It’s mostly just time consuming boss. Follow the instructions to the T. When it comes to bits, I learned everything from UA-cam lol.
@@BigCountrysWay copy that. Thank you for the reply!
If you're using it for personal projects it's ok. Don't get it got business purposes. It's not gonna hold up
I feel like a few hours to do something that intricate really isn't that bad...
I'm looking for a machine just to cut pvc sheets and HDPE and acrylic sheets mainly 24x48 for reptile enclosures would this machine work ?
I recommend joining the xcarve users group on Facebook. They will answer any question you have and they are more knowledgeable than me!
You can push your machine harder for sure.
Learn more and more everyday!
I just ordered mine can’t wait to get it!!
I ordered mine back in January I think. And I'm just now getting around to building it. lol. What kind of wood do I use for a waste board?
Well I mainly use the stock MDF that comes with the machine. A lot of people mount a sacrificial piece of MDF and make it their waste board. When I do a straight though carve, I normally use the glue and tape method on some 1/4” plywood attaching it to my waste board. Then glue and tape my project to the 1/4 piece
@@BigCountrysWay thank you for the reply...
@@brucehirsch5437 yeah man! I try to get to all of them!
@@BigCountrysWay much appreciated! Gonna be watching as many of your vids as I can! I'm just learning about the cnc carving machines. I hope it isn't to hard to learn as I all ready use 3D printers and so far it looks similar.
did they go up about 5x in price? they are about $9K now
That’s for the xcarve pro. Regular xcarve should still be about 2.5k
Pine is on the list on easel.
It is now but it wasn’t when I recorded this
Hii
I love xcarve
You say 1000/1000 workspace but its not .. more like 750/750 ?
I’m not a MM guy lol it may be. Either way, huge space for the price.
@@BigCountrysWay haha i am no inches here in belgium
@@gwilasean7928 hahaha I just got my upgrade kit! I’ll be making video on it this weekend! Super pumped!
I have the original x carve...I built this thing in 2016. I loved it to start with but I've come to learn to just how inaccurate/ unreliable/ poor build quality they are. Maybe they've improved over the years and I'm sure the pro is much better but these machines are more for hobbyists than businesses. As dog slow and inaccurate as they are you'd have a hard time making much money with them anyways. Gotta be honest, fanboying is not gonna win you any prizes unfortunately
Didn’t fanboy. I installed the upgrades and it made me a lot of money. With the upgrades it was a completely different machine.
What is a waste board?
It’s the piece of MDF that makes up the bed of the machine
@@BigCountrysWay thank you
@@krisreid6647 no problem!