sfsjkid

I realize CNC is not new, but probably is from Sears. Has anyone used the following product for our planes?

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes

More info is here,

http://www.carvewright.com/index.html

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

It looked interesting, I was thinking of carving fuselage plugs, but can only carve to a depth of 1".

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

You think it might do props? At Kingbury Aerodrome they have a similar router looking thing but makes full size golden age or WW1 props.
Edwin

Pilot352

It's $1900.00. I saw it advertised on TV. Way out of my price range!!!! The ad got my attention until I "saw" (no pun intended) the price tag. WOW!!!! I would have to build 500 airplanes to justify that cost!!!

-Pilot

mmattockx

You could do plugs in slices, with an indexing hole to let you stack the pieces on a tube or dowel for final alignment and gluing together. It would still be a lot easier than shaping everything by hand, but not perfect.

$1900 is significant money, but look at what some people are spending on the big IMAC aircraft. Lots of them have enogh spare $$$ to easily justify having something like this in their basement. And I can see clubs or groups getting together to buy one and share.


Mark

BMatthews

Props would be no problem. I can also see that with a little 1/16 router bit you could cut out your own sheet parts up to 1/4 thick and with a 3/32 or 1/8 cutter up to 5/8 thick. Basically a poor man's laser cutter.

Campgems

I would like to see the software with it. That alone could make or break the usefulness of the machine. I've been working with CNC for a couple years now, and the software is everything. One other thing that looks as if it could be a major problem with this guy is that it feeds wood through like a printer feeds paper. Not sure how it would handle balsa. Something else to look at.

I think if I were going to spend that much, I would add another grand and pick up a laser cutting setup. It would be much more useful for cutting ribs, formers, etc.

Don

T_om

You should read all the problems initial buyers are experiencing with these things before tossing good money away. I would not touch one with a 10 foot pole, and it ain't about money.

Go to their forum and read.

Tom

elcam84

My Feedback: (2)

Couple of random things first. I have talked to a couple of the company guys in person while they were at the woodworking show.


You can download the software from the site and play with it. It's not bad and has some things that regular cad programs need but it does lack regular cad funcions and is awkward for me to use compared to autocad.

You cannot import DXF files. You can import picture files and trace them. They will be incorporating that in the future.

To cut balsa sheet you are going to have to put it on a piece of foam because of the minimum thickness the machine accepts. I don't know how much downforce the rollers apply so I don't know if it'll crush the wood or not. Basically it's a planer that has been converted to a CNC. Not a bad idea and one that I wondered about too.

The drive belts on the bottom look to be 120 -150 grit sandpaper. Typical with home size drumsander drive belts and works well.

Many of the units in customers hands you hear about are the beta versions.

If you belong to the craftsman club it's on sale for $1600 usually.


There is a digitizer for it and it's not super fast but it's not too slow either. Accuracy is very good IMO and you can adjust accuracy just like a printer. Less accurate it goes faster.


If you want one buy it from Sears as the price is better and they are getting the first several shipments. The company us using Sears to get them started and they hope to build a more HD machine.


Their bits are somewhat proprietary but you can use regular bits.

Right now their main market is in creating carved reliefs to mimmick hand carved. From talking to the guys they really don't know who to build it for. They didn't have a clue about using it for making model plane parts or similar applications.



I built a home made cnc router a while back and sold it. I started building another but haven't found a deal on steppers and a controller for it. It's built just needs the mechanicals to make it go. It's nothing special but it works great for model plane parts and it's cheap. Yeah it has drawbacks but oh well. It's the phoenix on www.crankorgan.com.
I do like some things about the compucarve but right now it's still better to build your own.

sfsjkid

Thanks guys, I did some additional research too, and found this,

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=22238

I'll leave it to all to make their conclusions.

Don, who makes the laser cutter for a thousand more? That would be even more of a bargain!

Campgems

They start at around $3500 I think, but those are really to small do do much. Something like a 18" maximum length. I've given up on that approach and am instead going to make a router table to handle 48" x 12" and use a laminate router for the spindle. I may need to go to a higher speed though as I want to use some 1/16" size routers, and I'm not sure 25,000 RPM will do it. I've got a Taig mill that I CNCed and I have a bunc of leftover motors and drivers, so it's more of a matter of time to get to a final stage. I picked up a 6"x 1/2" acme thread rod last week. It is going to be a fight with it over flexing at speed, but I only intend to use about 54" of it for the main screw. I should be able to get my 48" travel from that. I'm also not going to go overboard trying for accuracy. If I can keep within 0.010" I'll be happy. That's way tighter than gluing plans to a piece of balsa ant the hand cutting and sanding to size. If you look at most plans, the width of the lines is at least 0.0625" wide, so it is easy to be off by 1/8th inch on the final product. I also have to find another five foot area in the garage for it.

Anyone looking into CNC for their models should look at Sheetcam for 2 and 2 1/2 D work. It just can't be beat. It will take input from a number of cad formats. Meshcam is a great package for 3D work, IE cowls pants and the likes. Add in Mach 3 to drive the hardware and you can have the full package for around $500. A CAD pack is also needed for your drawings and here they run from free up to a grand. I picked up a Rhino 3d package about three years back and couldn't be happier with it. It is toutted as a 3D package, but I've been using it for 2D work and have been converting Bob Roach's P&W Wap Jr plans to Cad so I can get an engine that should run with little effort as everything will fit. All this fun stuff to do and the flying gets in the way of getting it done

Don

SCALECRAFT

My Feedback: (13)

Went to go see this tool with my buddy who wants to split one 50-50. The local sears has two in stock, for $1600 each. Why would you put a new tool on sale so early??. I believe it to be a great concept, but this first version may just be the test bed for an improved one to come shortly. I hear that the next version will come with much more on board software.

Market feedback is rapid with the internet these days.

Had to pull my buddy away from the machine, he is ready to buy.

Steve

T_om

You can always tell the pioneers... they are the ones with all the arrows in their backs.

Tom

elcam84

My Feedback: (2)

Well put.

As for putting it on sale at Sears.. Well Sears operates just like Harbor Freight. Everything is on sale at some point so don't buy anything unless it's on sale.