CarveWright

[Glen Walker]

Hi Guys,
I made it to the Wood working Show in St Louis this weekend and now am the owner of a fully NOT functional Carve Wright Carving machine. We went thru all of the design process down to setting up the machine for carving and then just as it was about start carving i got a Power Fluctation Error. I tried this another dozen times and every time the same thing happened. After doing a little investigating i found that the Power Supply has a bad connection. But it has also gotten me concerned about the rest of the machine. I have found that there are a lot of people out there that have had problems with these machines, and Im now curious if I should go ahead while I still can and get a new refund before my time runs out. I suppose what I would like to know is how many of you guys have these machines, how much trouble you have had out of them, and if you had it to do over again would you still purchase it, or just save up for a more rugged machine?


Thanks,
Glen Walker

[Michael McCoy]

Search for Carvewright or Compucarvewright as there have been several threads in the last couple of months. Most of us that have them got them knowing there might be problems. The machines coming out now "should" be second generation and most of the routine problems have gone away. I have about 75 hours on mine and the only problems I have had were operator induced. The Carvewright site has a very active forum that you might want to check out and there is also the Compucarvewright dot com forum. Both are excellent for getting tips not to mention the company (OEM) has an excellent reputation for tech assistance.

[William OConnell]

Hi Guys,
I made it to the Wood working Show in St Louis this weekend and now am the owner of a fully NOT functional Carve Wright Carving machine. We went thru all of the design process down to setting up the machine for carving and then just as it was about start carving i got a Power Fluctation Error. I tried this another dozen times and every time the same thing happened. After doing a little investigating i found that the Power Supply has a bad connection. But it has also gotten me concerned about the rest of the machine. I have found that there are a lot of people out there that have had problems with these machines, and Im now curious if I should go ahead while I still can and get a new refund before my time runs out. I suppose what I would like to know is how many of you guys have these machines, how much trouble you have had out of them, and if you had it to do over again would you still purchase it, or just save up for a more rugged machine?


Thanks,
Glen Walker

Ive had horrible. horrible, horrible, experiences with my carvewright machine wich is now sitting in my shop idle for 5 months. I would never buy another one they actually wanted me to ship it back and charge me another 500 for the next gen wich they say is better. I just want a working machine. Me personally I think as nice as everybody says they are at that company and they are nice to you on the phone. Ive spent waaaay more time trying to get it to run than its actually ran. Shame on them

[Glen Walker]

I am just curious how many of you guys out there have bought these machines and had good or bad experiences, and if you would buy it again knowing what you know now.

[Michael McCoy]

I am just curious how many of you guys out there have bought these machines and had good or bad experiences, and if you would buy it again knowing what you know now.

See my post above. My experience has been good but I knew what I was getting in to and expecting problems, I haven't had. These things are going to require some tinkering and a fair amount of learning curve. If I had just a wee bit more justification, I would have went to a CNC setup but the call just isn't there for me.

edit:

I don't know what your intended use it but I just got mine to do some relief work on custom furniture. As it has turned out, my machine has already paid for itself with the 75 hours of run time. I work at a place with a very large active/retired military and small plaques (especially Marine emblems) have been almost all of the running use.

[Charles McCracken]

In all fairness to the CarveWright folks, I believe that William bought one of the earlier "Beta" units which were very prone to failures. Not that his comments aren't valid, just so you know they may not be relevant to the newer machines. I agree with his feeling that their offer of replacement machines to beta testers for a $500 upgrade charge was less than generous. I bought one for personal use a year ago and have had a couple of problems but only one that was the fault of the machine and required sending it back for service (they paid freight both ways). I am not affiliated with the LHR company, just own one of the machines.

[Troy Martinez]

I am on my third carvewright machine by virtue of sears 90 day return policy. The first one was DOA with a power issue. The second had multiple failures and even travelled to LHR for a fix that did not work. The third is still working (and is beyond the 90 day return period) but I cringe every time I use it expecting another fatal error. Would I buy it knowing what I now know? Considering a computer controlled router is usually 10 grand or more plus software and bits etc., the carvewright is worth the price. My wife calls it the money pit. I call it a renewed interest in woodworking.

[Ralph Kreiple]

I have been looking at these machines for some time, waited for the bugs to be worked out.

Finally bought a CarveWright on 2/24/08 at the Milwaukee show, went to set it up 2/25 DOA, blank disk, 63 errors on flash card from factory.

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

The people on the phone are seemingly unmotivated and know all about these problems. Even told me about the blank disk before I mentioned it to them.

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

Now they want to send me a power supply (another known issue) so I can repair it.

Stay away from these machines.

[Michael McCoy]

I am on my third carvewright machine by virtue of sears 90 day return policy. The first one was DOA with a power issue. The second had multiple failures and even travelled to LHR for a fix that did not work. The third is still working (and is beyond the 90 day return period) but I cringe every time I use it expecting another fatal error. Would I buy it knowing what I now know? Considering a computer controlled router is usually 10 grand or more plus software and bits etc., the carvewright is worth the price. My wife calls it the money pit. I call it a renewed interest in woodworking.

Troy - you may already know it but Sears is now offering an extended warranty on the Compucarve machines. I just bought my second machine a couple of weeks ago so I guess it's still a love 'em or hate 'em judging from the posts.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

I am just curious how many of you guys out there have bought these machines and had good or bad experiences, and if you would buy it again knowing what you know now.

Is this the same Glen Walker that use to be in Houston, Texas????

[AL Ursich]

I am a CarveWright Supporter, I have 2 machines and have had my share of problems over the last year. I even had the power supply problem too. It's a L2 Coil that is glued but if too little glue is used the copper mass vibrates until copper metal fatigue breaks the connection just below the level of the Circuit Board.

I am a Mr. Fix it so every challenge has been an exciting adventure for me. My Navy Electronic training, Sony Factory Automation training in Fanuc Robots has prepared me well. Plus I was doing board level repairs on Play Station 2's a few years ago at the Philly Service Center.

Yes it is a very hands on CNC. Would I give it up? Never... It's just too much fun.

From Beta to current models I believe there is a big difference. I posted a bunch of pictures on here a while back before the Server Error.

I post under Digitalwoodshop on the www.carvewright.com forum and post lots of pictures of the mechanical things I find.

I have had a problem with the board detector circuit board breaking from vibration and saw they are now sealed or Encapsulated. I just got 3 sensors in just to have them on hand, I will need to look and see.

I am looking for a 3rd used machine soon. My 1st one was new, 2nd a return to Sears broken, 3rd....

I posted pictures on this post #18 http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=63985

And here too #9 http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=75307

AL

I am in the middle of a Sublimation Project doing 300 Fire Dept Accountability tags. I decided to do a board to hang the tags with the Fire Dept Name on it. It was a quick job for the Carve Machine. A perfect project for it. I will post a pictured when it is done.

[Paul Kunkel]

I am just curious how many of you guys out there have bought these machines and had good or bad experiences, and if you would buy it again knowing what you know now.

I plum wore out my first (Beta) machine after it paid for it's self several times over & got the 2nd gen replacement that's been humming along ever since. Yuo have to understand two things. 1) it's not designed for commercial use & 2) it has size limitations. I use it on every cabinet job to drill all my shelf pin holes & that use alone makes it worth it for me. I keep a stack of sides next to the machine and change them out about 6min apart. In the meanwhile I'm doing other stuff. Signs, trim plinth blocks, fancy carvings for doors or whatever, makes it a handy helper in the shop. Bear in mind when you read of the complaints & problems that they are a very small percentage of the over 10,000 units sold. This is not designed to be a rugged machine like a TS or jointer. It is a small CNC and subject to the whims & problems of a computer. The majority of the problems I hear about are operator error, computer dummies, poor maintainence, etc. I amuses me how many have not read the manual!