I found this massive desk at Goodwill, it is solid wood and measures 48" x 84". It has lots of storage and I am getting excited. 2 boxes arrived today…almost there.
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I did a similar thing. I got a really sturdy solid wood table second hand for $72 and it saved a ton of time and money.
Have fun building the X-Carve! I know I did. 
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Love the desk @ErikJenkins. Plenty of room for the x-carve. I love the reuse - repurposing of things. So much stuff ends up in the landfill these today’s! Bravo to you sir!
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OK going to throw my hat in the ring too. I am building a twin bay setup for both the X carve and the Shapeoko set ups I have. I owned the Shapeoko and Inventables sent me a X Carve for some testing so I want them side by side, yet apart. It is a simple setup which a picture will explain better.
The bays will be fully enclosed shortly with doors on front and Plexiglas tops. Each system has a monitor and both are being run by Dell E4300 laptops until I get the i7 mATX computers built and installed. The Shapeoko is still setup for my old system so I need to move the cable chain around and get it set up with hook ups for going through the side wall of the bay so I can keep it fully enclosed and neater. The X Carve will be built this way from the start. Both bays will shortly have more LED lighting installed in the milling spaces to keep them nice and bright. Both setups have sliding keyboard trays so they can be closed and moved out of the way when not needed. The bays have been build high to allow for some tool storage inside each bay to reduce time spent searching for spindle change wrenches and end mills.
The X carve will be running a .8KW VFD spindle and closed loop water cooling system. The VFD controller will be mounted on the upright between the bays for ease of use.
As I build it out I will throw in some updates but for now it is a good start and has been working very well for me so far. One of the best things is the room is right next to my office and fully sound insulated in the walls and air conditioned! More updates will follow as I build and find new ideas to add from the great spaces everyone is posting here already and yet to come.
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For what it’s worth, the legs on my table were first used for concrete forms for my sidewalk…
does that count?
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Wow, what a sick setup. Why did you decide to go with a .8kw VFD?
I have been using the 48V 400W Dc spindle and wanted to see if I could find a way to mill a bit faster and with smoother cuts over all. A trim router is just too fast of an RPM for aluminum and PCB milling overall so I had to find something between the two. I have a 1.5KW VFD for my larger 21x37 mill and after seeing the .8KW spindle on the X carve on person at inventables a few weeks back I decided to go that way. I mounted it up tonight and it looks great. Right now it has a 3D printed mount closer to the style of the cast China mounts, one large piece and screws to clamp it shut. This will be used to mill the mount I designed. Tonight I am working with the 3D printer to get the size right for the cable chains. Going to run 2 chains, one for the spindle power and water and one for steppers and limit switches to reduce the chance of interference from the spindle power line into the stepper wires. Playing it extra safe but since I mostly mill aluminum tool plating which is not cheap, better safe than sorry in my book.
Once I have the cable chains sized then I can design and print the cable chain mounts for the NEMA 23 motor attachment holders. I mount my chains to the motors so i have to drill less holes in the mill plates. Have run the OKO that way for about a year and had no issues with heating. One nice thing about living down south is that we always run the AC so the house is nice and cool for the motors also.
I do a lot of aluminum too. Do you think the vfd will make that big of a difference over a trim router? Also since you are going at a slower rpm wouldnt there be more resistanceon the steppers and frame? Im eager to see some of your results!
These were all done with the 48V 400W DC spindle on the Shapeoko. I also did all the anodizing in house. The VFD spindle can run from 0-24,000 RPM or just about any speed in that range. They are massively quieter than the trim routers and very powerful. The OKO (and X Carve) by the nature of how it is built is not meant for fast deep and deep cuts like a ball screw mill is built for. Things like belt stretch and frame twist come into play more than the spindle powder over all. Pushing the mill so hard that the spindle stalls will warp the frame and or stretch a belt out of calibration for the cut. My main reason for going with the VFD was the noise and speed range options for slow speed things like acrylic and such. I mill everything from acrylic and PCBs to aluminum and stone work. But by far I do most of my work right now in aluminum.
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Interesting. For my finishing passes, I have a Dewalt DW660 1/8" 3FL at .0625" DOC and .01" WOC at 40ipm. What are your thoughts on these feeds? I get a bit of chatter here and there (could be my tool path), but the part generally turns out like in the final picture the bottom part. I assume the top part in that picture is after it is tumbled? How long do you tumble your parts, I usually tumble mine about 2 hours in a rough media.
Looks great though, I’m definitely thinking about spindles more. Do you have a link to the one you are using? Is it one of those chinese ebay ones? I was looking around and they are like $250 for a 1.5KW 
I’m trying to get my quality dialed in, any tips is much appreciated! This is most of the aluminum I’ve done so far:
Started building a cart for my CNC thats coming in next week. Due to
the space requirements of my garage, this cart is designed to fold down
and store against the wall so i can still get the cars in. I still need
to build the “tower” on the side that will have 3 drawers, a lower
cabinet, electronics enclosure, and a fold out shelf to sit the laptop
on. Not bad for the first day of the build.
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@Targs_Workshop - Hey Matthew! I love your videos, but you haven’t posted any new ones in a while. What happened? Glad to see you are in the forums here now.
Hi Mark, Work has been really really busy this year and I have been working a lot of overtime, which really cut into my free time to make videos. We are also expecting a baby at the end of this month, so we have been remodeling the nursery and getting that ready. On top of that, we also completely gutted and remodeled our main bathroom, which took up the rest of the little free time that i had.
I did shoot a bunch of video yesterday for the CNC cart and will continue to do so. So I should have a new video up soon. And as soon as the x-carve comes in, ill post an unboxing and review video.
Checked out your youtube. I was hoping to find some videos of the CNC table build. Subbed anyway, looks like a good channel. Keep it up man!
Yeah, two of my favorite maker channels so far are Targ’s Workshop, and Winston Moy. Both have some great and informative videos, so check them out if you have not already. I am hoping to come across even more great info specific to the X-Carve, especially someone using the X-Carve with a TinyG controller.
Its funny because I watched all of the x carve videos I could, now everyday I just get on youtube and search for x carve, filter by upload date then see what is new. Found a few channels that way for makers that received x carves to try out.
Mine will be here Monday! I’m off Wednesday, and can’t wait!!
If i can get the CNC cart finished tomorrow, i should be able to have a video about it towards the end of next week. thanks for subscribing.
Day two of the CNC cart build … man it was a hot day. I gave up at about 3pm, it was just to hot to continue. Got the tower section build, the folding shelf attached, and the front legs on. Just need to build 3 drawers and a cabinet door … and attach a CNC to it.
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Dang thats a really nice workstation. I should have thought of something like that.
@Targs_Workshop - Looks good. Just make sure your tower section allows fresh/cooler air in and out from the rear where the power supply will be. Can’t wait to see the video.