What are some quick projects we can make during class? My issue is that I have 90 students so carve times would have to be under 2-3 minutes. Any ideas?
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The Mosaic tile wall and the balsa wood gliders are cool.
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/two-color-hdpe-mosaic-kit-for-schools
I just saw mosaic tile idea and love it! What are the gliders?
Here’s a link to the project
Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply.
Also, and a bit off-topic, but my school is considering another X carve…but Ive seen rumors of upgraded models/parts and other announcements coming soon…how long should I wait?
We haven’t released any dates yet for a new product announcement.
Something like this would be nifty.
Someone here probably has links to patterns you can cut out.
My kids are interested in making quick things to sell at a market…suggestions such as key chains with initials (all the same size out of sheet material the kids choose their font or design a logo)
small boxes where the students carve a design on the lid. (can also be a mass production project) and coasters. (carved and resin filled)
This is cool, but im curious how I could incorporate this as a project for 20 students.
How bout this?
I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a 2-3 minute carve project. The dinosaur above would be awesome , but may take an hour or more to make. (I cut out the Triceratops in about 2 hours, I think). If possible, you may want to consider either allowing a longer cut time or letting them design and you do the cut after-hours. May even be able to crowdsource some of the cuts from forum members here, as long as it’s not an unreasonably long cut or expensive wood.
Maybe you can have them make Zach’s tiles or coasters with their names or initials in them? As long as you use a reasonably small bit (1/16" or 1/32") and large font, you should be able to do it all without bit changes. Making coasters out of wood would allow you to teach them how to seal and finish the coasters as well. You’d want to have a handful of the bits though, in case of breaking or dulling.
Now that the school year is in full swing, I wanted to check in to see if anyone has had the chance to come up with new resources for middle school projects or other project ideas? I do like the tile project idea and plan on using that with my middle school students. However, I’ve found that the information on the project page is helpful for an adult, but not quite clear enough for a student to follow. Has anyone taken the tile project and fleshed it out a bit for classroom use? Also, does anyone have a good online resource for small batches of balsa wood for the gliders? I noticed that isn’t something that Inventibles stocks.
Unlike the original poster, I don’t need to have a ton of students complete a project within the class period, but instead need to create resources where students can work relatively independently with the Carvey to create a project. Typically only one group of students would use the Carvey during any specific class period (and for a few days at a time).
I ended up cutting 6" square wood tiles and got everyone’s carve time down to 1-3 mins per tile. 40" per min feed rate, .083" depth per pass. Worked great!
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Hey Bill,
I am currently doing the Mosaic Tile project with middle schoolers (7/8th grade STEAM class) and it is going great! We are about 2 weeks in and can finish any day now, but I keep finding new projects and ways to increase the use of Carvey and other projects into this one.
I’d be happy to send you any course materials that I’ve used so far for this project. We used the HDPE kit that is available through @inventables, but I could see a similar project done using the chalkboard sided MDF that is available at Home Depot.
Would love to help you out in any way and it would be great to collaborate on a project if you’re up for it.
I’d love to see your materials Blaine!
Have you seen the fidget spinners. You could crank these out quick. The bearings are like $1.00
The project ended up turning out great! Here is a link to a video we made to show off our work. I will be doing this project again in the fall, but right now I have students making all sorts of projects ranging from edge lit acrylic signs, animals moved with gears, fidget spinners, and even a castle made from boxes using the box app in easel.
I am finalizing a list of projects and resources for integrating the use of 3d carving into core subjects this month. Let me know if you have any questions on project integration or application!
I just came across this topic and thought I might share what my 4th through 8th grade classes are doing with a single X-Carve machine in a small Charter school wood shop that uses recycled …actually dumpster dive materials from behind the local cabinet shop on a machine that was purchased with donations. I had to come up with a way to allow everyone a chance at using this very popular machine during regular wood shop class. I try to keep it cheap, small, easy and fun!
The detailed procedures I use are posted as a tutorial on an overhead TV. They can pretty much work alone and complete their project (and sometimes more) in a single class. You can see the tutorial here… New Project Ideas - Woodworking - Woodworking Teachers
Here are some of the safety signs posted around the room that were made on the X-Carve… New Project Ideas - Woodworking - Woodworking Teachers
And we have done many other projects such as fidget spinners… New Project Ideas - Woodworking - Woodworking Teachers
We are doing so much with the X-Carve that in less than a year, we had to replace the DeWalt router’s brushes. Happy Carving!
My kids do a variation of the tile project, but before I turn them loose with the two color HPDE, I buy sheets of 1/8"masonite. I rip them down to 5-7/8" squares on the table saw and let them use this to “practice” using the default settings for MDF and a 1/16th mill.They can carve both sides of the masonite if they limit the cut depth to about 0.05". I also let them paint the squares and coat them well with polycrylic. This gives them something a bit closer to the two color plastic and gives them practice using paint, cleaning brushes, etc. I let them have the masonite panels for free, but they have to reimburse me when they are ready to move on to the HDPE.
I also cut the masonite into other sizes as long as they are (common factors - kerf width) of 48 and 96, so 7-7/8", 11-7/8", and 15-7/8" masonite squares are always in my materials inventory.
Masonite squares are also good to keep around for kids to make scroll saw projects, and usually I have a few who realize they can digitize their scroll saw patterns and cut them on the x-carve.
I had one kid who found Steve Ramsey’s Christmas shadow box project, washed his PDF through Inkscape and cut the patterns on the X-Carve…this was before Easel’s image trace tool was well understood.
At the beginning of our X-Carve adventures, I was very fussy about detailed lesson plans for an X-Carve project. But now that I have a “museum” shelf full of X-carve-d items for kids to look at, I just concentrate on making sure they can use the machine safely without breaking it and spend more of my time teaching design development and engineering processes. X-Carve is now just one of the shop tools and I no longer require "an x-carve projec"t, instead, I require a project that contains components that were made on the x-carve, and the 3d printer as well as the band saw, scroll saw, drill press, sanders, hand tools etc.
One piece of advice for any school considering an X-Carve. I would strongly recommend buying one of the small ones first. I have two machines, and 99% of the things we make would fit just fine on the small machine. I probably WON’T do this, but I have given serious consideration to cutting the 1000mm machine down. Truth is, I would rather have 2 500mm machines than a single 1000mm machine.
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