Hey everybody. I’m a maker of sorts, wood mostly, and I’ve wanted a CNC forever. I’ve got the funds to pull the trigger on an x-carve pro but haven’t quite figured out make enough dough to justify it. Anybody have any encouragement on how profitable these things are? Thanks
How profitable is up to you. If you are not sure just buy the xcarve not the pro and at least you are not investing as much and see how you get along.
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What you decide to make and ultimately sell is going to determine what kind of profit you will make…if any. I made guitar bodies with a cnc I built from scratch and made enough money to pay for my hobby over the years. I see people making a lot of flags and assume that kind of thing sells. Ideally you want something that is unique that can command more than a couple of dollars per unit. That’s the hard part…coming up with that. I’d suggest you start learning 3D cad to maximize the machine’s capabilities too.
The pro is a pretty good capital outlay. The X carve is more affordable to the budding cnc-er. My X carve with multiple upgrades ( was formerly a Shapeoko2) is a pretty reliable machine. If I hadn’t already bought 4 cnc machines over the years, I’d consider something like X carve pro or a comparably constructed machine.
Having a rigid machine with lead screws and supported linear bearings is what businesses probably should lean towards. I’d consider the x carve as a hobbiest machine, but you can still make money with it.
One of the nice features of the x carve is the relative simplicity of it. If something breaks you can get a replacement part from Inventables or elsewhere pretty easily. I know nothing about the X carve pro in that regard.
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