Hi all. Is the only difference between the X-Carve and Carvey the size of the cutting area and Carvey is in an enclosure?
My use: Creating designs in Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and importing them into Easel.
Thank you for your help.
I think the Carvey also has some auto z homing trick so you don’t have to adjust the machine for the material thickness.
@pike_lake There are a number of differences between Carvey and X-Carve. Here’s a quick list:
Carvey
Comes assembled “plug and play” out of the box experience
Quieter because it has an enclosure
Cleaner because all the debris stays inside
Intended for a studio, office, or classroom environment
Uses a Smart Clamp so you don’t have to zero it you just press the “Carve” button and it starts
Bed size is 8"x12"
Not expandable
Fixed gantry meaning the work moves up and back rather than the spindle
Uses linear bearings on the gantry instead of an extrusion
More rigid than X-Carve
X-Carve
It’s a kit you must assemble yourself
It is expandable easily to 1000mm x 1000mm, hackable, and upgradable
Configured at checkout by the customer per your requirements or desires
Intended for a shop environment as it is an open frame
It uses MakerSlide extrusions and V-Wheels for the motion system
The power supply sits to the side rather than inside an enclosure
Both machines will support creating designs in Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and importing them into Easel.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
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One question that remains is I’m under the assumption Carvey will require little maintenance and the X-Carve will require maintenance and tweaking because of their build structures, is this true? Or is the X-carve pretty sound once it is built?
This is my first time owning such a machine.
We’re still getting data on X-Carve, but my Shapeoko 2 at home tends to keep running without a problem once it’s set up.
I haven’t had to change the belts in over a year and it’s maintained squareness over that time as well. When you’re building the machine from a box of parts, there’s a learning curve and “tuning” phase for the first little while, but once you get it tuned up it’ll keep running smoothly for quite a while.
My problem is that I keep upgrading parts, and depending on how much teardown you do to install something new, you need to spend a little time re-tuning it again to get back up to speed. It gets faster the more you do it though, I changed out a few parts last week and got everything installed and tuned in the same evening.
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