So I threw down the ol’ credit card on an X-Carve.

The X-Carve is a CNC router produced by Inventables. It is offered in a variety of sizes starting at 500mm x 500mm up to 1000mm x 1000mm and beyond if you wanna indulge in some modifications. I sprung for the meter by meter machine. The common thread among all the sizes is that you have to build it yourself.

I’m not too concerned. I used to build airplanes and helicopters and I have some experience building largish “making bots” from building, along with a few co-workers, an Re:3D Gigabot last year for the office.

Downside is I will not receive all of the parts at the same time, as the controller and a few other things are back-ordered because you filthy animals overwhelmed the folks at Inventables during everyone’s favorite holiday; Black Friday.

The version I ordered was just updated back in September and includes standard an improved motor controller and replaces the basic DC spindle with a Dewalt 611 compact router along with a long list of other improvements in the stability of the system as a whole. It seems Inventables has taken note of much of the feedback on their earlier incarnation of the X-Carve and made the improvements standard.

So I sat down Wednesday night and started building what I have received. I worked until my GoPro ran out of space recording the time lapse footage. So far I have not lost any pieces. I did receive a pulley with no set screws and will have to order those from Amazon. I stopped about two-thirds of the way through the build due running out of space on my GoPro, only needing to attach the fully-assembled rails to the frame and wasteboard. I finished building the machine a day or so later, minus the backordered components.