Carvewright on Amazon or Ebay

[Leigh Costello]

Hello all. I am writing on behalf of a concerned hubby. We want to break into CNC. Carvewright would fit our needs nicely at this time. Amazon is selling a package deal for about $2000, includes machine, probe & full set of bits. Hubby wants to know if a reconditioned off of ebay for $1000 then add bits and probe is a better deal. The machine is reconditioned, not new on ebay. Anyone have an opinion?

[Neville Stewart]

I would highly recommend that you get the one with the best warranty. If youre new to CNC then a failure could leave you with a very large door stop. If your husband is very technically minded then he probably could fix it. I personally got tired of sending the machine back although they have improved greatly, get the warranty!

[James Jaragosky]

If you get one at all Get a new one, they have had problems when they first started selling these things from sears.
That said the sales staff at the Atlanta show last week made a good argument for the machine in its current configuration and build.
One more thing you really need to read the directions on how to operate one of these machines from what I have read, many problems are user error,
but a small error results in major repair.
I should say that my opinion is entirely based on reading forums like this one and I have never operated one myself. The machine I saw in Atlanta was producing some amazing stuff.
The machine has been discussed here a few times, if you do a search you can read up on past questions like yours.
There is another forum that has quite a bit of information on these machines as well, if you pm me ill give you the link. I wont post the name here it would be bad form.
jim j.

[james mcgrew]

i was watching tv in june of 07 saw carvewright, went to sears and purchased one within an hour, learned my lesson and purchased real Gcode cnc within a few months, good first lesson at 2000.00 in the long run, lot of fun for the occasional hobbiest but it is totally propietary which means you will purchase everything from them and them only. several have thought it would do craft shows and then find out it is real slow, it has its place but not in cnc.

my wife asked me to keep it for her and her friend to use, it is still in the barn, i am a commercial woodworker so it served its purpose for my learning curve, there are far superior cnc routers out there that will give you years of good service with out failure. and they will only cost a little more, look at romaxx, camaster, k2. shopbot buddy, there are others.

you want to have some real fun, build one!!

jim mcgrew

[AL Ursich]

I have 3 Sears CarveWrights and I do the Craft Show Circuits with the stuff I make..... I don't cut on the road, I only cut in the shop. I have a friend in North CA that does the Fairs making signs as he goes but is a highly skilled hand router sign maker as a back up....

On to your real question.... New or eBay..... Like they post above.... WARRANTY..... New, good warranty..... eBay... NO WARRANTY..... You will pay around $400.00 to send the machine to LHR for a out of warranty repair....

We have 6 machines in my area and myself and 2 other carvers met in a church parking lot once and I performer a repair of his machine on saw horses in the parking lot.... What a site we must have been..... I am a "Mr. Fix It" on the www.carvewright.com forums... I post under digitalwoodshop.

I have over 800 hours of cut time on my main machine and 500 and 250 on the others. Both bought used and broken....

I did OAK Trophies for a County Fair Fire Competition, took a solid week with the participation Plaques.... Finished at 6 PM and had a 7:30 start time for the competition.... One day 2 machines ran for 15 hours side by side board after board.... The next day as seen posted in my entries.... The Machines BROKE..... I made repairs that the normal person would have to send the machine in for.......

I fear shipping the machine back.... More machines have been reported broken beyond economical repair after UPS the prime shipper ROLLED the 97 pound boxes...... The Sears boxes damaged were replaced by U-Line boxes Slightly BIGGER..... and TALLER..... This let the rolling Boxes cause SEVERE DAMAGE to the machine. A Friend went to WAR with LHR because the machine was received a total LOSS and UPS said "Too BAD".... He LOST....

The machine in it's current configuration with the improved Cut Motor Magnet, New Z Bundle with heavier wires, the glued L2 in the Power Supply is a very good machine..... Being a HIGH Hour user the next Dilemma is the C1 Capacitor on the X Termination Board is going to break OFF from vibration like 2 did on ME..... The mass of the capacitor causes vibration the flex the copper wire until it breaks like it did to the L2 Coil in the power supply. They knew about the L2 and had it glues but the workers in China didn't put enough glue on the part and it broke below the surface of the Circuit board as seen in the pictures.

Many more will see the C1 problem. When it first happened to ME it caused the Cut Motor to RUN when it should NOT... When the second board C1 Broke the new software was running the unit and it just stopped. They fixed the run in the software. But others will see this problem soon as the hours build.

My opinion.... NEW but from LHR DIRECT !!!!!! They reportedly go over them and pre install all the fixes BEFORE the Ship them.... My next NEW Machine will be from them.... But I am still looking for a 4th used broken machine to add to my Stable

Did the Craft Show today and took on a Week's worth of Carving WORK... Oval Signs are a BIG HIT especially put a Black Bear on them..... )$$@@$$(

Failed Solder Repair in picture, broke again flush with the capacitor.
AL

More Pictures posted on this thread. Won't let you post the same picture twice.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=75307

[james mcgrew]

i had breakfast recently with the future of affordable cnc cam software, with out revealing to much, i was passionate about carvewrights software and it's ease of use, i implored them to rename the designer and package it for us in the gcode world, no reply (ignorance at best) soon the wait will be over and someone is going to just breeze by them

[AL Ursich]

Good to hear.... Competition and innovation is good for the end users.... Not so good for the Manopoly.....

Sony Beta tapes.... Good Product.... Manopoly = Death of a product....

AL

[Neville Stewart]

Thats interesting James. I had a CW & the software, while it was very easy to use had limitations too. I'm pretty sure LHR didnt develop Designer so my wild guess is that the statute ran out & now it can be sold to fit other formats ???, well if not who cares an easy 3D design package cheaper than $8000 wold be welcome. Can you say when we might expect any news? Neville

[james mcgrew]

thanks neville, and yes you and i will benifit greatly from this, it is not to far off but i felt trusted and i will hold that in the spirit it was given, i have seen the product and it will be a good thing for all of us

jim

[Neville Stewart]

That pretty cool James. I'll be watching for it. Can you say the price range it might be in? I'm toying with the price of Artcam, but currently its cost effective to buy from the guys who are experts. Neville

[james mcgrew]

neville, i intend to wait
jim

[Doug Hoffman]

I just wanted to let you know,the machine sold by Amazon is a true Carvewright made bu LHR. The machine Sears sells is rebadged as Compucarve. Sears "tries" to handle the repairs of the machines they sell,reports are not very good on their work. The machines Amazon sells are NEW units and serviced by LHR the manufacturer. I would rather have the people that built the machine repair it!

[Steve knight]

nothing wrong with the carvewrite bit it is nto really a cnc router as such. it's software is very limited it's width is really limited and it's depth of cut is pretty limited. for signs and some 3d work it is fine but not suited to woodworking.
so figure out what you want to do on a cnc router and buy accordingly. myself I want as few limits on the machine as possible. speed is not really a limit but capacity is.
this is something that could be done on most cnc routers but not at all on a carvewrite.

[Leigh Costello]

Thanks for all the info. Once again the knowledge shared on this forum is awesome.

Steve, which system do you use? (If you listed it above, I apologize for my ignorance)

[Steve knight]

I have a shopbot a prt alpha 4'x8' I can work around most of the limitations the one I can't is z height I only have 6" and I can use more sometimes.
but the things I can do I surprise myself sometimes (G) vcarve (partworks) can do so much when you learn how and work around it's drawing limits.