A new xcarve rises + upgrades

3 days… its been 3 days now that ive been trapped in this… wait wrong story. um 3 days it took me to complete my 1000mm xcarve. i almost had it done one day one with 12 hours strait. i was pretty determined to get up. but thats all i could do. then the next 2 days were work days and i got maybe 6 hours of wiring and nitpicking in total for those 2 days.

so i build drones. and i wanted this to scratch build drone frames out of carbon fiber. but man if a hobbyist cant resist all the other fun things i can do with this puppy.

3d art, game props. sign making. vcarving looks really cool. my friend wants to make a custom guitar.
and maybe i can make some money back to pay for all this with some sellable projects.

id also like to say that the guys on this forum are awesome. i asked several question up to and after my xcarve’s arrival. and my first generated like 6 responses in about 3 hours. very helpful and active community and it felt like a vary warm welcome. alot of other forums told my my projects were bad and or crazy, and i didn’t find that kind of negative criticism here.
and the inventables guys are great to. they do message back in a good timeframe unless you catch them on the weekends. but very helpful.

so i made really only a few minor upgrades, i really dislike the wiring. but of course im picky and i like silicon wire. it the only thing i use on my gear. and im aware that it cost a fortune per meter and i cant find anywhere to buy in bulk.
but honestly the wire was so stiff that it wouldn’t stay in the g-shield. and the power cable. forget it. would not bind with the fan cable. so i replaced shorter lengths with silicon. not that anyone will see it anyways. because i meshed the whole thing. but it was nicer to work with and thats why i have it. and a little soldering helped in places. but i really like the mesh better than the messy wires i was given. this machine looks to nice to have messy wires.

aside from the cheap cabling. my only other gripe is the lack of spare nuts and bolts.these things literally cost like 3-7 cents each. mabye less if you buy a s*** ton at the same time like a company would. ive bought them in bulk before. i d rather pay $2 extra then have the machine held up by one screw in each corner because 4 when missing. which is really, the only mishap that happened. but ill have that fixed soon and m5x8 bolts aren’t that hard to come by

but overall this thing looks great. its running great. the air cuts looked right, and soon i will make my first real cuts, so im really excited

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nice, clean, and neat final product
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pretty beat up and torn. good old postal service couldn’t really care i guess. but no internal damage
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im a really organized. honest but not serous. parts in bags on left. construct and tools every where else
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looks mutch better with cable meshing
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first day completed
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really ocd with cable mesh
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anouther great shot of it completed
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and yes. the back is still a little messy. it wont get seen often. sue me. :slightly_smiling:

3 Likes

You can really tell you build quads, man! That’s some of the nicest, cleanest wire-work I’ve seen on one of these. Beautiful!

Also, you can very easily make your money back with this thing! I’ve used mine as a key component in projects that have easily paid for it at least four times now. That’s probably being quite conservative, if I work out the actual numbers on it. CNC routers in general have short payback windows, and one this inexpensive to begin with makes that rather easier.

Well done and welcome to the club…I am sure you will enjoy your machine, it can make some incredible pieces.

Thanks guys. Looking forward to getting started

@MitchellHerron

nice work man i did the same thing with my wiring makes it so much cleaner

I am glad that i am not the only one that has there machine located in there house mine is in my office at arms reach from my main computer

but are you going to build a table for it?

Yeh i plan to. but it honestly quite convenient on the floor because it can support my weight. i can just crawl over to the bit and work on it. i just know im going to scalded for that by someone here. sitting on my xcarve’s baseboard lol. but its freakin massive and pretty solid.

i also ran a 25 foot usb cable from it and around my entire room to my pc.

i did get weak and buy a day 1 dust shoe from kent cnc for like $160. i just cant make a big mess in here so it would be hard for me to learn how to use it, and then build one without making a mess or going insane holding a shop vac to it.
but it doesn’t make the slightest mess. so well spent in my opinion. no i can get into the habit of making everything i need from scratch.

I too won’t tolerate cable mismanagement. You did a nice job with yours. What are the sizes of the braids you used? They come in various sizes from 1/8" to well over 1". I’m going with a different color than black though (probably red) and probably some of those colored channel inserts they sell over at OpenBuilds. Gotta look good, not just functional. :wink:

I think it was 1 inch mabey 1.5. And its the type that comes pre cut along the tube so i could put it on after the build was complete