I’ve started a fire, destroyed two bits, and I have nothing to show for it. I actually have quite a few failed pieces to show for it, but nothing that actually worked. I spent over 4 hours on the X-Carve, and the cut fails every single time. I’ve tried using different nouns, different woods. different thicknesses, and every single time something goes wrong, or I have to stop the cut because something is about to go very wrong (like another fire or breaking the entire machine). I don’t know what else to do at this point, I’ll update this blog post if it ever works. But here’s some proof that I tried.

 

Here are some of the steps I took/would have taken had the X-Carve worked slightly better:

1. Find my noun

At first I decided to use a palm tree. I searched for this on The Noun Project and imported it into my Easel file. After many failed attempts on the palm tree, I eventually searched for a dog paw, since I thought it might be a little simpler and easier for the X-Carve to cut.

2. Create my Easel File

I created my shapes so the circle would be cut out, and the palm tree would be raised. I adjusted for the shape and type of my wood, and made sure the correct bit was selected.

I first did this with the palm tree, and eventually the dog paw after the palm tree failed multiple times.

3. Cut the Piece

Once the Easel file was created, I thought this would be pretty simple to finish. I got practice using the X-Carve multiple times, and I even taught two groups of freshmen how to use it since they caught me during my lab assistant shift. I manually zeroed the material, since I had tried the Z-Probe and had issues. I lined everything up correctly and pressed carve. I sat with the machine each time, and watched it make incorrect cuts, do a nose dive after it was finished and start a fire, break multiple bits, and dive too deep again and almost start another fire. I sat with the machine for hours and many different cuts and it never worked. The picture below is the closet I got to a working piece, but this is the time that the machine dove down and started a fire.

It got to the point that I was scared to use the machine because I thought I would break more things, and I already had spent hours on this project, so I decided to call it for now.

4. Post-Process

Had I had even one successful piece, much less two, I would have post processed. I would have used a stain then a clear coat to finish off the pieces. 

 

Cost Estimate

I used about $7 worth of wood, which is a high estimate. I worked for around 5 hours on this project, and I will pay myself $15 an hour, which brings labor cost to $75. The total cost for this project is then $82.

Reflection

I don’t really know what I could have done differently in this process. I definitely made mistakes and learned from them through this process, but I think the failure is mostly due to the machine. When I have more time, I want to get back to the X-Carve and hopefully make a successful cut.