CNC Router

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad

jimmyz

Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Messages
161
Location
Providence Forge VA
Looked at the x-carve as an alternative to building my own. Also looked at Shapeoko 3. Both, I think, are made by the same company.

Do you know if the x-carve can be modified for use with pen blanks? Guess that would involve another axis.
 

darrin1200

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
1,833
Location
Lyn, Ontario, Canada
Actually they started as the same company. One of the founders took the Shapeoko to another company xalled Carbide 3D. X-carve was born and the two are "friendly" competitors.

One of the reasons I bought the X-carve, is because it is very modifiable. I don't know what all you would need to add the 4th axis. For me that is quite a ways down the road.

Inventables has a $100 discount and free worldwide shipping for Black Friday.
 

Terredax

Banned
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
892
Using a 4 axis machine, requires a good working knowledge of the CAD/CAM software that will be used. Rotary engraving requires wrapping.

On a small radius with small designs, such as a pen, and the shallow depth, will require the machine to be very accurate on all axis, including the rotary to be practically perfectly level to the Z axis.

Most of the less expensive machines don't have the best resolution and repeatability. Some of that is due to the rigidity of the machine, and some is caused by excessive backlash.
 

darrin1200

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
1,833
Location
Lyn, Ontario, Canada
Personally, I am not after rotary right now, but it may be something I look into in a year or so. Right now, I am trying to wrap my head around the vector software and cutting paths. Hopefully it will be a little clearer, when I have the machine in front of me and can do trial carves.

I just did a quick look on the inventables forum, and found a couple of threads. There are more.

https://discuss.inventables.com/t/my-journey-to-a-rotary-axis-on-the-x-carve/26467
https://discuss.inventables.com/t/pen-engraving/21726
https://discuss.inventables.com/t/rotary-axis-question/28049
 

LeonBlack

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2019
Messages
2
Location
Suzhoiu, Jiangsu, China
To build a normal CNC router, you need to know every parts of it.
You can find most CNC router parts on : http://www.cncsparetools.com/cnc-router-spare-parts.html ,
also each parts with their detailed explaination, that helped me a lot when I built mine last year.
And you can find lots of information and knowledge about CNC machine parts, so you can choose the right one for your specific needs.
Good luck !
 

cjester

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2015
Messages
157
Location
Illinois
X-Carve can not support a 4th axis. The controller is GRBL on an Arduino, so it's limited to 3 by both hardware and software. When you see somebody with a 4th axis on an X-Carve they're replaced the controller. Alain Vaillancourt (The Woodpecker on YouTube) recently did that: https://www.youtube.com/user/lgosseuxdbois.

I have an X-Carve. I like it, but found the build frustrating. Inventables instructions aren't very good. Their own site links to the assembly videos by The New Brit Workshop https://www.inventables.com/projects/x-carve-video-instructions-new-brit-workshop. His videos are what got mine built.

I ditched Easel (Inventables web based app) as soon as I saw everything was working. I'm using Vectric Vcarve and Universal Gcode Sender, and I'm happy with that combination.
 
Top Bottom