Inventable 750mm x 750mm

[Don Nicholas]

Jim I would be happy to complete your request. I am 75 years old and move a little slow.

[Bill George]

Is this the machine that uses belt drive?

[Jim Becker]

William, the unit you mention is pretty impressive. I can see how the design "forked" between it and the X-Carve. I like the stout looking extrusion design, etc. The one comment I'll give you is that the web site is a little more difficult to figure out the real end-cost and I'm not 100% sure what accessories are included vs what has to be bought separately...things like limit switches for example. I give good credit to the Inventables folks relative to that aspect of their shopping experience. You might want to take that comment back to your employer since marketing and purchase ease is really important.

[Bill George]

So what is the price point for a completed and ready to run machine?

[Jim Becker]

So what is the price point for a completed and ready to run machine?

For the largest X-Carve, including the DeWalt router and a whole bunch of accessories, it's about $2K. I suspect that the Shapeoko XL, once you add the router and similar accessories comes to about the same cost. Both include basic software to learn with and both actually support MacOS as well as Windows. Once you move to more premium/upscale software, it's pretty much a Windows only world on the computer side. (Fortunately, I have Windows available on my Macbook Pro, so I'm not going to worry about that should I get a CNC machine at some point.

These are not "industrial" machines, but seem to be pretty darn capable for the effort of having to assemble them. The Shapeoko clearly is easier to assemble than the X-Carve, based on the videos I've watched, but both have very similar capabilities and characteristics.

[Art Mann]

I just want to emphasize that this machine is strictly hobby grade. Nobody should make the mistake of assuming it can be ramped up to a commercial level. It just isn't strong or fast enough.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for the clarification on what is actually included in the kit, William. It really wasn't clear to me and some review videos had statements like, "if your Shapeoko includes the limit switches..." which added to the confusion.

Art, you're correct that this is more hobby focused, but for some of us, that's right about where we'd want to be.

[Ted Reischl]

Looks like a decent unit. Depending on what you are planning on doing it may fit your needs perfectly. It would not fit mine, but that is not the point.

I have not been able to determine what cutting feedrate it is capable of without flexing/chattering. Maybe that is somewhere on the web that I missed.

[Jim Becker]

Looks like a decent unit. Depending on what you are planning on doing it may fit your needs perfectly. It would not fit mine, but that is not the point.

I have not been able to determine what cutting feedrate it is capable of without flexing/chattering. Maybe that is somewhere on the web that I missed.

I'm new to this world having just started to investigate it more seriously and your last statement is likely very true. These are very, very functional units, but the cost containment is certainly going to limit them relative to things like feed rates and production capacity. That's not an issue for a hobbyist or someone who does very small runs for their Etsy store, etc., to make some "mad money". They are not going to serve well for "serious" production work, however. The cost of entry reflects on that. If I decided I wanted to make a serious go at building a business around CNC-produced "stuff", then clearly, a much higher end machine is going to be the better choice. What you get for $10K is a lot different than what you get for $2K with X-Carve/Shapeoko/etc in that respect.