THE INVENTABLES WORKSHOP

  Intro We’ve just released a lot of significant updates to Easel Pro, the subscription upgrade to our Easel software . These features optimize workflow, saving business owners time and helping them make more money. Our goal is to simplify your CNC carving, and we believe these updates will take your carves to the next level. Speed Improvements First, let’s talk about an update that applies to both Easel and Easel Pro. The page loading speed has increased nearly 10x. With many technical updates behind the scenes, you’re able to get from idea to carve faster than ever before. Moveable Workpieces Workpieces are a great way to cut out multiple designs or define multiple cut settings per workpiece. Now, these workpieces can be rearranged by simply dragging them around the bottom toolbar. Toolbox Finding the right bit and material has never been easier with Toolbox. Save bits and materials to your specific account from Inventables or customize ones from a 3rd party supplier. Bits and materi

Please join me in welcoming TBD CNC to Inventables! Today, I’m excited to announce Inventables has purchased TBD CNC, the company behind the X-Carve Ultimate Upgrade Kit. Luke Wilson, the founder of TBD CNC, will join Inventables as the Senior Product Manager in charge of the X-Carve product line.   The story of TBD joining forces with Inventables is representative of our core ethos of a community of helpful and supportive people.  Luke has been an incredible contributor to the community. He has led moderation of an X-Carve Facebook Group, designed and sold upgrades, all with the goal of helping people improve their machines. The more we talked, the more our excitement grew around the potential of working together on our shared vision of helping bring manufacturing technology into the hands of millions of people. During our conversations Luke said “if we’re going to the same place it probably makes sense to carpool”.  Inventables is focused on making accessible tools that help people e

The X-Carve Pro and Easel Pro offer countless ways to add value to your products. We’ve chosen four that make it easy to expand product lines and create higher quality (and higher-priced) items.  Deep, Powerful Carving With each new piece of equipment, shops need to get the most out of the investment. With the X-Carve Pro, the power means the CNC router can carve thicker pieces of wood, faster. A great example of this power is shown by Jonny Builds Origami Door . The build uses ¾” birch wood that the X-Carve Pro is able to carve quickly on one pass. With this speed, shops can produce substantial furniture or other projects more quickly. By increasing the production rate, shops can improve top-line revenue and margin.  Precision, detailed carving Details equal value when producing custom projects for your customers. Jen Woodhouse creates a wonderful relief in her hall console table . Imagine being able to add this level of design to your custom furniture, cabinets, or architectural mold

How quickly you can bring new products to market often depends on how quickly you can prototype. As Paul Jackman at Jackman Works showed us, the X-Carve Pro puts the rapid in rapid prototyping.  Rapid Prototyping There are some products that can’t simply be done on the first try. The giant hands build is just such a product. With many carved parts needing precision assembly and the flexibility to move freely at all the joints, obtaining the right measurements required multiple prototypes. “It allowed me to do rapid, repetitive, prototyping.” -Paul Jackman By using Easel Pro[link], Paul was able to quickly modify the carves and send them to the X-Carve Pro[link]. Each revision advanced the design a little at a time until the fingers moved perfectly. It’s not just the Easel Pro CNC Software that allows for faster prototyping. It is also the power of the X-Carve Pro. In the video, you’ll notice that Paul is carving 2x lumber. The X-Carve Pro is moving through it like it's a thin pi

Bandon Collum and Paul Jackman had a great conversation about the X-Carve Pro and Paul's work with it to create large articulating hands. BC: What was your first impression of the X-Carve Pro?  PJ: The X-Carve Pro comes in a crate, and it's six or eight pieces. The whole gantry is all assembled. I got it together in a couple hours, maybe, and that's because I was taking my time. But it's, it's a very, very simple thing to put together. I was surprised. And I didn't have to like trim it or do anything fancy, like it was already very square and ready to go out of the box.  BC: When I first saw your pitch [for the articulated hand], I didn't realize it was going to actually work. How did you make the mechanism work?  So I basically cut out each finger on the X-Carve Pro in pieces and then sandwiched it together in three layers. And then within the three layers in the center, there were pockets cut out at the top for a bungee cord and then at the bottom for a pi

  Inspired by Balinese carved wood furniture, Jen starts designing her Console Table with pencil & paper, makes it blossom into an elegant design in Easel Pro, and brings it to life with the X-Carve Pro CNC Solution.  This console table project, including the intricate carving done with the X-Carve Pro, took one weekend. That’s it, just a weekend. X-Carve Pro Precision & Speed Take a close look at the design carved into the side and legs of the table. As Jen mentioned on her site, this level of detailed carving was not accessible for her until now.  How? X-Carve Pro is shipped with pre-assembled and tuned axes, shortening the user’s assembly time and increasing accuracy to +-.001 . Combined with the fast, powerful 2hp spindle, the X-Carve Pro is able to quickly carve even the most intricate patterns.  Inventables Customer Support As Jen was setting up her project, she contacted John from our customer success team to ask about the best way to organize her carve. If you are uns

Forget time and size limits. With our latest X-Carve Pro system, you’ll only be limited by your imagination. The X-Carve Pro paired with the power of Easel pro will let you tackle the big jobs and get them off the machine faster. The origami door that Jonny takes on may be one of those projects. It’s a really cool alternative to a regular door and is a fun build. It uses ¾” thick birch plywood & ¼” acrylic, has a lot of carves, and several pieces that have to fit tightly together. It's the perfect project for the X-Carve Pro CNC Solution and Easel Pro software.  Not sure how the CNC software and machine work together? Jonny gives a great explanation. Look for it near the beginning of his video. In short, CNC, or Computer Numerical Control, the software sends instructions known as g-code to the router telling it how far side-to-side, back-and-forth, and up-and-down to go (x, y, and z-axis). There are a few features of the Easel Pro and the X-Carve Pro that really come in handy