today i’m going to give you a quick overview of the newest cnc from inventables. meet the x-carve the newest cnc from inventables. it’s got 50% less parts than their previous machine which means it takes 50% less time to assemble.
cnc router woodworking machine, one power supply to power everything, and a new spindle mount for more rigidity and accuracy. this machine is open source and completely customizable. today i’m going to show you a technique to make this sign and keeping all the small pieces properly spaced.
take a look. i first start by clamping down my wood to the wasteboard. there are many ways to do this but i prefer double sided tape. then i lower the bit until it just kisses the wood. in adobe illustrator i’ll draw my art. if you use text you’ll need to convert it to outlines. i will then reverse it and save it as an svg. i’ll then navigate to easel.com, log in and import my svg into a new project. i’m going to slightly modify my art so you can see how easy it is.
next i’ll go in and modify my material to the species and size i’m using. which happens to be walnut that is 11†x 7†by 1/4 thick. then you’ll have to choose if you want to cut a fill, on the line, inside our out and we want to cut outside the line. i’ll then set the depth of my cut to just a hair shy of the full thickness. next i’ll click carve, confirm the thickness and then make sure the material is secure, select the size bit i’m using, confirm the bit is in the home position, tell the machine to raise the bit, turn the spindle on and start carving. from here it’s just a waiting game as the x-carve will cut out my art with a few passes. now we’ll add ca glue to the parts we want to keep.
spray some activator on the mating board, position the art and add some weight to clamp it down for a minute. now it’s just a matter of sanding through until the art is revealed. this technique can be used with any cnc projects that involve small pieces where alignment is key. you can find out more about this machine at inventables.com if you’re new to my channel i put out new videos every week and you can find out more about me on my website at drunkenwoodworker.com. thanks for watching. be safe. stay passionate and make something!
