New User with questions!

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Hi!

I have a small woodworking business, that offers mostly lathe-turned products for Fiber Artists - knitters, crocheters, and spinners. We’re beginning to branch out into products that would be best manufactured with a CNC router.

In addition, I’m following a personal interest in sportscars, into exotic wood shift knobs. I’d like to use a hardwood “coin” engraved with a shift pattern, to add to the knob. This coin could be any sort of hardwood, even harder types like Ebony. Again, I think this would best done with a CNC Router.

The Inventables product line seems to be a good way to “test the waters” as it were, without a huge investment, and learn how these machines and their supporting design software work best.

The price is right, but is the quality of the X-Carve line suitable for small-scale production to begin with? How far can that capacity scale until the needs of the business go beyond what the X-Carve can provide. Or, is this simply not something to worry about?

We would begin production runs of say, a dozen at a time, with several runs a month. If the products take off, more product would have to be manufactured. I doubt we would ever get into thousands a month. Maybe not even hundreds, although those numbers are appealing!

So, while I have little doubt that X-Carve can get us started, how far can it grow?

Your thoughts, comments, questions and derisive peals of laughter would all be welcome

Thanx!

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I am not real sure which way to tell you to go here but if the xcarve fits the bill and will do what you want i would not worry about out growing it. If you can get done what you want but need more production buy 2 or 3. There is a lot of owners on here that do have more then 1. Start with 1 and see how it goes and if it will do what you are wanting. Then grow from there. Depending on what you are making you could spend a lot more and still be in the same situation that it won’t keep up. Hope that helps.

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The XCarve is a hobbyist machine. Many have used it for small business productions, but it’s not quite as sturdy and hardened for mass production purposes. It’s a good starting place if you have the budget to subsequently scale up if needed.

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The XC is very capable of production with hardwood material. When set up and operated appropriately.
Yes it might not be as solid as Axiom or others in that class, then again it is only a third the price.
A very good starting point for moving into cnc.
And the resale value appears to be very good. It seems that most are getting most of their investment back when selling.

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