Comments on: Carvewright wrong?

By: Butch Rupright

Butch Rupright — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:31:32 +0000

I have had my machine over 6 months, other then the learning curve that you would expect, it has worked out very well.

By: Will

Will — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:41:51 +0000

I bought a sears compucarve, I got three small projects out of it before it broke down. Called Carvewright and their techs are very helpful and spot on with correct diagnosis. But I was disgusted when only after a one hour project, the machine broke down again. Calling Carvewright, they told me that the machines they sold Sears have untested and defective parts installed from the factory. No matter how great the concept is, I believe having to fix the machine twice within only 6 hours of operation that the machine is going to be headaches till the day I get tired of fixing it. I returned the junk to Sears with them telling me every one they sold has been returned. Hope the next purchaser gets lucky!

By: murray

murray — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:00:15 +0000

Has anyone bought one of these machines in 2008??? Are they any better than the earlier versions for learning to use and for problems? Has customer service improved at all? I live in
Canada and texas is a long way to ship for repairs. As you can tell by my address, I already make enough firewood.

By: carveman

carveman — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:20:18 +0000

I had one for a few months before it stopped working.. after repeated attempts to get it fixed I gave up and bought a Shopbot http://www.shopbottools.com It is a little more expensive but the quality and versatillity jump is huge.. And the guys there are great to work with when I had questions about the software..

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:33:27 +0000

I work on a full-sized machine (size of a pool table) making very large patterns for casting purposes. I love it so much that I decided to build my own from a set of plans purchased from an engineer online. At this point, I have been collecting the parts BUT continue to read about it on numerous web sites, to read about he different software on the market, and to especially read about the technology of CNC.

It would seem that many of the problems folks are having is due to poor design of the device or shoddy manufacture of the device/materials used.

I’m wondering if there will be a class action lawsuit against Sears and CarveWright to help those who spent thousans of dollars on non-operating equipment??? I too keep watching for new info from the manufacturer and never see a word of improvement being made to the design. I wonder if those failed machines were made after a ‘rice and saki’ break?

Anyway….software is something you must find time to sit and play with before you send anything to a machine. I found using our software to be very easy yet others I worked with could not make a drawing or design and convert it to the machines language no matter how long they worked on it. So here is a tip I gave them which might work for some: Think of silk screening your design. You do not want parts of the design in one color overlapping parts of another color. If they overlap you must cut the top part through the bottom part. For example: If you have the letter ‘X’ and want it to be in two colors with one ‘leg’ the color being white and the back ‘leg’ being black you must cut the white throough the black. If you took the design apart you would then have three pieces. The white part being a full ‘leg’ while the black part being in two pieces.

The first time I made a design I converted it to the machines language and called it up on the screen only to find that the background was filled with the path lines that the bit would follow, cutting right across the foreground design. Thats when it dawned on me what needed to be done.

Additionally, be careful when entering dimension in decimal. Make sure the decimal is always in the right place. There’s a BIG difference between .25 (1/4), 2.5 (2 1/2), and 25.0 (25). Inserting an incorrect number might account for the Z axis cutting through the material and into the machine.

I’ve found that the easiest program to use to make a design with is Corel Draw. I haven’t looked at the CarveMaster software yet but have read many times that people use Corel and then convert to whatever format the machine uses. I’ve been trying to download the CarveMaster software to no avail.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:34:45 +0000

I purchased a Compucarve from Sears. I was a computer technician for 5 years so getting through the software went fairly quick. I started a few projects and was doing well with it. My first problem was the 1/4″ bit adapter. It was very difficult to open. I called Carvewright and they said try some mineral oil. (also read the forum). I tried that and it didn’t help. Carvewright did send me a new adapter but it requires a special flat wrench to put it on which I didn’t have and couldn’t find. But before I got a chance to get to deep into that, I was feeling pretty confident and went and bought some nice expensive hardwood. I cut a few projects and then the problems started. The machine started the project fine then would gradually cut deeper and deeper until it was all the way through the wood. I contacted tech support and left message after message and could not get help. I finally got fed up and put the brand new 1/4″ bit adapter in the box and took the machine back into Sears for a refund. A week later I got a call from Carvewright as I was sitting in the airport getting ready to hop on a plane. I told them that I fixed the problem. If you do decide to buy one, I highly recommend getting a shop vac and installing a small port in the cover to connect the hose to. This will eliminate many of the problems you might have. Cleanliness is critical with these machines. I also recommend a sound proof box unless you have a place out of the way in it’s own room. An air compressor with a blow nozzle would also help.

By: ralph

ralph — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:04:48 +0000

Bought a CarveWright on 2/24/08, went to set it up 2/25 DOA, blank disk, 63 errors on flash card from factory.

After a 4 hour set up and troubleshoot, got it running and broke the carving bit 5 minutes into the sample project in a piece of clear fir.

Got a replacement bit, tried again, stopped running without any error code halfway through project.

Now they want to send me a power supply so I can repair it. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Stay away from these people. OBTW, the CEO worked at NASA, is that enough reason.

Anyone know a place where I can get a real CNC router.

By: NewKidOnTheBlock

NewKidOnTheBlock — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:57:10 +0000

Hi gang! Well! I don’t know wether to be scared or anxious but I just paid for one of these CompuCarve a couple of days ago & I am waiting for it to get to me. I have one regret already & that is they don’t send the complete bit set out with your machine unless you order it at the same time. Also I saw that it actually costs you almost $10 more if you buy the set as a complete set. Yes! It is actually $9.14 cheaper to buy them seperately. I will try to keep this up to date as I move along with my new machine.I also found that I can’t find all the accessories & bits on Sears website, I had to go to http://www.carvewright.com to get everything I needed, including the centerline software which is what you need for all the lettering. Well! I guess that’s about all I can say for now. I hope to have my machine within the next week. Buy the way The CompuCarve & Carvewright are the exact same machine except that Sears has their name on one so when you can’t get stuff at Sears just go Carvewright.com TahDah!

By: Don Aughenbaugh

Don Aughenbaugh — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:05:16 +0000

I am waiting for my third machine. The first on quit after 15 hrs. and 9 min. After waiting 9 days for Sears to replace it, the second machine quit after 2 hrs. and 15 min. The first one quit due to the board sensor continually reading 0 no matter what and the second one melted its flex cable housing when about 50% done with an approx. 1 hr. carving project. It had completed its first project of about 1.5 hrs. I have told Sears that they should stock 10 machines because I believe it to be a possibly great machine but it may take that many to provide me with one that will make the 200 guaranteed hours. I will keep returning machines until I get one that does because I believe it can be done and I think the results could be great. I am PATIENT!!

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:44:41 +0000

Is there a difference between the CarveWright branded and the Compucarve (Sears) branded machine? Cost, warentee, quality etc. This is a big ticket item for me, so any information would be of a great help. My wife has a birthday comming up….