Patterns from the CAD software are moved from your computer to the CarveWright with the use of a memory card provided with the system. After opening a new project and specifying the workpiece dimensions, you select a pattern, place it on the workpiece, then alter it by enlarging or reducing it, stretching or compacting it, rolling, flipping or duplicating it. Many, many more can be purchased online from the “Pattern Depot” at the company’s website. The program includes a library of about four dozen patterns, ranging from rosettes to shells to leaves and filigrees.
It won’t take you long to develop a project for carving.ĬW Designer has a “clip-art” orientation. After installing the software, try the projects on the tutorial CD. Though the machine itself virtually fills the box, you should rummage first for the CDs with the CarveWright Designer software and the instructional videos. CarveWright's CAD software is perfect for laying out carving work on the router, and is relatively easy to learn with easy lay-outs. There are adapters for both 1/4" and 1/2" shanks. If you buy a set of profile cutters, you’ll get each bit mounted in an adapter. With the basic package, you get a 1/8" up-spiral bit and a tapered carving bit, each mounted in an adapter. Using a bit that deviates from the specs will result in an imprecise cut. The cutting specs of the bits - including their extension from the adapter- are embedded in the Designer software.
The bit must extend a precise distance beyond the adapter (the required extension varies from bit to bit and is specified in the CW manual) and the adapter’s setscrews cemented with Loc-Tite to prevent the bit from working loose. Standard router bits are used, but to fit the quick-release collet, a bit must be inserted in an adapter. Mounted beside the gantry, the motor drives the cutter by way of a flexible shaft. A clear lid allows a view of the action opening it interrupts the operation. The spindle zips side-to-side on a stationary gantry, while a friction drive mechanism moves the workpiece beneath it.īecause the workpiece, rather than the cutter, moves in the X-axis, the machinery can be enclosed by a housing, keeping fingers away, dampening the noise and containing most of the dirt generated. But in its operation, it mimics an inkjet printer.
To me, it resembles an obese lunchbox planer - a sculpted box with fold-down infeed-outfeed tables and a substantial crank at one end. The CW doesn’t look like the archetypal CNC router. The CAD software that comes with CarveWright's machine comes preprogrammed with several patterns, allowing you to quickly get it running in your shop. Everything you need, except a computer, is in the box. It’s intended for home shop rather than production use.Īs a turn-key system, virtually everything about the CW is proprietary - CAD-CAM software, controller software, the machine itself and the bits it uses. Its other capabilities, such as cutting parts to shape, come along as bonuses. Marketed as a carving system, the CarveWright (CW) does that remarkably well. It might look like a planer, but CarveWright's machine is capable of automating complex computer-controlled carving and routing.
#Carvewright patterns free