I love my machine too! I was a little overwhelmed at first, but I followed the instructions online and they could use some updating, but overall it went well. I did have an issue with my power supply. I posted a topic on the forum and got help right away. This community is great. I did a lot of testing and it resulted in me calling inventables to get a new power supply. They shipped a new one and i got it the next day! The customer service is top notch. I have made 5-6 projects and i’m still tinkering with adjustments and such. But I will say that I’m glad I built it myself because now i know every inch of this thing and can diagnose issues quickly. I think people are too impatient with this machine. I’ve seen the bashing and to me it looks like lack of patience honestly. It’s a machine/tool that requires more attention and that’s completely ok by me. I paid for it and i’m gonna take care of it.
Thank you for the kind words. I am sorry you are experiencing the issues you are and yes it can be frustrating!
If you go to the Shapeoko forum here Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable you can follow myself and others who are playing around with the 40 watt Chinese laser.
I do not have an X-carve because I built a machine similar to the X carve. What I learned from designing and building my own machine is that there are pros and cons with every DIY machine be it belt drive, metal rack and pinion, dual belt rack and pinion or direct lead screw drive. I have built a version of each. From what I have read the X-carve is a decent machine, I would not mind having one but money is a little tight because I am the only income earner in my family because my wife is disabled. Any way, I have learned with the belt system is you really need to keep the belts tight or they will slip. Also need to not try to carve a blazing trail. Running a machine too fast will cause a drastic loss of steps and that is primarily operator error and/or lack of experience either with using the machine or not familiar with setting the best speeds and feeds with the materials that are being cut, Using a cutter that is not compatible with the material, having a misaligned or improperly assembled machine or other issues not mentioned or we can just say, all of the above! Verbally trashing a machine because of our own inexperience is not the best way to a solution…taking the time to discover the problem and solve that problem and creating a solution to prevent the same issue from happening again, that’s the solution to solving the problem other than trashing the product. Just my two cents and I don’t even own this machine but would like to.
I have to agree, I love my X1000. I took my time building and followed the advice found on the forum ( Thanks a lot guys for your advice, it saved me a lot of frustration). Building and running the machine is a learning experience. Because of listening to and working to understand the posts on the forum my x-carve has worked perfectly from the first project to the one I finished this morning.
This is not a machine for the guy who can’t or won’t go deeper than look at the pictures and slap it together and expect it to plug and play. To make it work you HAVE to understand how it works and what the machine needs to do it’s job. Give it that and it will make you a happy operator.
It’s pretty simple really. Set it up square to start with, keep it clean, check the V-wheels and belts regularly and above all else clamp your work piece down firmly. A lot of the fails I see posted on the forum look like the piece slipped or moved during the cut.
The other part of being successful with any cnc machine is understanding your software. I see this at work and I quote “I don’t care how it works just tell me how to solve this one problem.” Which is great until something else comes up that is out of the ordinary and it’s back to the tech to solve the problem instead of avoiding it in the first place.
I guess that turned into a rant 
My point is that if you don’t understand how any machine works (and software is just a machine made out of code) you can run it but you will never get the most out of it.
Everyone in the U.S. have a happy Thanksgiving, and the rest of the world peace, joy and happiness.
Nice. Plus, on this Thanksgiving Day, let us give thanks to that majority population totally reliant on us techs. To them, I say, I am very thankful for you and truly love you all, though I may not express it often enough.
I’ve had my machine cut just a couple things, and I too can say I’m a happy buying. I had realistic expectations and I followed the instructions carefully. I found them to be simple to follow and I didn’t have to back track a single time. I haven’t found the limits of the machine yet, but it seems to do what I needed it for. Put me in the happy camp 
I love my X Carve also. The experience has been educational and rewarding.
The ONLY (and continuing) issue I have ever had is with circles. Everything else cuts very accurately. I have done the X axis stiffening mod, changed the spacer washers in the X axis V wheels to tighten up the carriage, and used the blue threadlock and nylock nuts for the V wheels with great success. I believe my issue to be mechanical, and probably deflection side to side of the Y axis–which I have not modded yet. I have pinpointed the problem to X direction changes, and the pulley IS screwed tightly on a flat; the V wheels are properly tightened; the belt tension is correct; the stepper motors have been calibrated; the steps/mm have been dialed-in (this is a necessity if you change the potentiometer positions). So this may suggest that the Y axis is being tugged and causing deflection. It acts exactly like backlash on a screw-driven system. This circle accuracy issue is a complaint that several people have on this forum, so there must be a common cause. And, since most X Carvers don’t seem to have an issue it would be wonderful to find a root cause. Again, my X and Z are more rigid than stock, but my Y is unchanged. Sorry to get off topic…
I don’t regret purchasing the X Carve and I am confident that I will find a solution to this singular issue.
Shapeoko’s 1/2 and X-carve all kick ■■■. HUGE value for the $$!!!
I’ll be using my X-carve to make the parts I need to finish a competing CNC machine design that I bought before I found Inventables. I know that seems weird, but right now the $400-or-so I invested in parts for the other machine have been a total loss.
However, using the X-carve, I can mill out some parts I could not get otherwise, then I’ll be able to salvage my investment in the other machine and relegate that machine to lighter-weight tasks (signs, foam carving or PCB work) and use the X-carve for hardwoods, aluminum and bigger signs.
Another interesting benefit of the X-carve technology: I can redeploy the Sythetos grblshield to drive the other machine, giving me USB-port capability at very low cost!
Nothing makes you appreciate the X-carve like buying into a competing machine kit first…then not getting it finished because the parts were expensive/hard to get and would blow the cost way too high.