I am tired of people bashing the X-Carve so here is my declaration of support for the product.
If you do not like the equipment, sell it and spend $5,000 to $10,000 and be happy!
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Haha I love mine too 
It just brings so much joy to my life.
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The machine is great, it was my ignorance that was horrible. I had stopped using my SO2 and basically written the entire machine off as an expensive learning experience. Then I I received an email from Inventables announcing the X-Carve and the X-Carve upgrade, it also pointed me to this forum where a lot of really patient people showed me how to tune and maintain it. Ever since then my X-carve and I get along great.
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I will second the love of the machine. My wife, however, has recently named herself an X-carve widow…well that has nothing to do with the machine but more of my own challenges with time with her and time in the garage with my machine…
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At least she’s in your profile picture. That counts for something right??
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I’m glad I’m not the only one that not only loves their X-Carve. I just went through my third round of upgrades. I first purchased the Shapeoko 2 and then got the X-Carve upgrade and just now finished upgrading it to the full 1000mm x 1000mm size with a bunch of other goodies.
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Hear here!
I love the range of possibilities that the X-Carve has opened up to me and I am definitely taking advantage of them.
X-Carve also offers a pretty big bang for every buck.
The x-carve is an opportunity for one to get their feet wet in the waters of the cnc world at a reasonable cost.
I as a hobbiest had been eyeing a cnc shark setup but could not justify the 4000.00 for a new machine or 2500.00 for a used one and having no previous experience with this sort of thing.
When the Piranha came out at 1600.00 with it’s basic 2d software package and 10x 13 inch work area, I took the leap. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the limited space and functionality of the unit. It would work but god forbid you look inside the magic box or attempt any sort of modifications.
3 months later, the xcarve was announced and the piranha went up for sale.
Assemble it yourself, learn what makes it tick and feel free to make mods to your hearts desire.
Is this route the best on for everyone? NO.
Some folks have decent mechanical skills and like to tinker with things to make them function better.
Others are digital mad scientists and really get into the computer side of things.
Some are a hybrid of both with some other abilities/interests thrown in for good measure.
And still others might be better off taking up gardening instead. 
Then there is this forum.
This, I think, and the outstanding customer service of Zach and the crew is what makes the xcarve concept work so well. I have come to consider some of the folks on here to be friends of a sort who are willing to offer advice, gentle criticism, praise, or a good smart-â– â– â– comment from time to time. With out all of us here, more of us may have thrown up our hands in disgust and cursed the name of Inventables
In Short , the X-carve is a decent machine at a fair price. It doesnt fit all applications or people, but then nothing does.
It can be made to perform quite well but it will never replace a 20000.00 commercial grade machine or match it’s performance nor was it ever intended to.
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I’ll be honest. I love this thing too. It started with my first piece of Makerslide a few years back, after years of using angle iron, roller blade bearings and hundreds of pounds of MDF. Makerslide revolutionized my crappy DIY machine. Then the X-Carve came around and like a junky I started collecting parts. I think when you start where I did, making things from SCRATCH, you see the beauty of not just the x-carve but all the parts sold here. And if I had not already been using V-Carve and Mach 3, Easel would have been a GODSEND.
Timely post. Agree wholeheartedly.
Folks in my local area probably agree also. This thing has been keeping me locked up in my shed now for months…
Thanks everyone. It feels great to see the positive energy alive and well on the forum. As you all know we are working very hard to make everyone that bought an X-Carve successful.
It is interesting to see people love and hate the exact same machine. Or at least love it and be really frustrated at it for a moment. I think it means we have lowered the barriers to entry but we have our work cut out for us to make it even easier to work with as people with different backgrounds and different levels of patience join the community.
When we start shipping Carvey, there will be a whole new group of folks that will be able to start carving after plugging in the machine. I’m anxious and excited to meet those folks and see what they will bring to the community.
Everyone here keeps us going. We have more work to do, but the feedback and encouragement goes a long way. Our next machine will be even better, Easel will continue to get better, and new people will join us in this quest.
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I don’t dislike it. But easel leaves much to be desired. There are other software options that admittedly I haven’t had the time to tinker with. I bought meshcam but the first day I tried using it, it tried to bury the damn carriage into the work area and snapped a v-wheel. I wish it was more of a “Cura” kind of software, set and forget. Not needing the Internet connection either.
I’ll figure meshcam out eventually and be happy, but this is not a buy it and whip up amazing artwork as is kind of machine. I’m still waiting to see anything really significant happen with Easel.
I hear you BUT…
I think maybe Easel is FOR people who would not “…figure out Meshcam eventually.” Easel fills a void quite nicely, allowing people their very first experience with CNC. I think it is brilliant in that regard, and I have never even used it! But I see the great things people are able to create with it.
There are lots of “levels” of skill represented here in the forum (mechanical, technical, etc.) and there are also lots of personalities represented. I think I posted something similar about Easel long ago, and now I regret it. Because I wouldn’t want a new CNC’er who has no experience with CAD, let alone CAM see it, and think that they need to make a colossal leap into commercial software because Easel is somehow fundamentally flawed. It isn’t. It’s a great place to start.
Yup, that’s why I was careful to not be overly critical. I think I expected more from it, you can make signs and whatnot with it. Good starting point.
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$3,499.00 no where close to $5,000 or $10,000.
4 years ago, I bought a 6040 CNC router from eBay for which I paid about $A1700. The controller was absolute crap and needed to be replaced. The construction was shoddy and needed major remedial work to make it usable. No limit switches.It only has 540x380 work area. It’s slow.
Compare this to the X-Carve which cost me a LOT less than that (I bought the parts I needed rather than a complete kit). It has a work area nearly 4 times the size of my other CNC.
I see the X-Carve getting a lot more use than the 6040 ever has.
It’s not going to be churning out aluminium parts 8 hours a day. If I wanted to do that, I would buy a machine that is designed for that sort of use, at a considerable price premium. I’m constantly amazed at just what some users here are managing to do.
I’ve no real idea what I’ll use the X-Carve for, but I’m sure I’ll have fun doing it.
Well not quite 4 times maybe double for the 1000mm XC.
Cost of the XC, waste board, Dewalt upgrade that was not available when I purchased, Dewalt spindle mount, X axis stiffing mod, shipping on the addition parts, V wheels, and if I upgrade to a real Controller so maybe i can cut a circle thats not .20 to.26 out of round I am in right at $2,000. Inventables must not offering the x controller for nothing. Not to mention all my time in trying to find out WHY it can not cut circles, 2 complete tear-downs and multiable partial tear-downs.
I will say for carving 3D and objects that have no definite circles or arcs, because its hidden in the work,its great.
@GiavonniPalombo Lets compare apples to apples. The machine you reference above is the Probotix Comet found here CNC ROUTER | GX2525 | COMET. It has an area of 25” x 25” which I am not sure is total working area. That is more in line with the standard 500 mm/19.685 inches of the standard X-Carve. It does not come with a spindle. That is an extra cost. The Meteor comes in at $4,299 with an area that is 25” x 50” that still needs a spindle option. That is more in line with the 1000 mm XC. I see a simple controller that is on par with what is now available for the XC. It does not have speed control for the Dewalt option.
I know you complain about the accuracy of cutting a circle, but if it was as common and an issue as you seem to think, I am sure there would be more comments on the topic. I have not seen that many here or on the Shapeoko forum. In fact, it is not unusual to see people surprised to have accuracy of more than 0.001 inches.
More than anything, the topic of this thread is I Love My Machine! I am sticking with it. You are more than welcome to your opinion. If you want to see some surprised people, head over to the Shapeoko forum and read how much people are having fun with their $366 CO2 laser which I am one of them. Wait and pay $2000 to $4000 for the Glowforge which sparked the interest or have a lot of fun for a fraction of the price. It is your choice and wallet.
Darn I love my machine!
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Im glad your XC works for what you need it to do, I am sincere saying that. For me it does not. So its a love/hate relationship.
I have been looking at the Chinese 40 watt, are you using it out of the box or have you gutted the electronics? Did you replaced electronics so its not using Newlyseal or newlydraw and spend $500.00 on the DK40 upgrade kit? Or piece it together with parts for different vendors?
Oh, The Asteroid would be the equivalent to the 1000mm XC the actual cutting size difference is 961XC vs 925 Asteriod of area on the X and Y.