Sears sells them http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... arvewright

 

They ship to the UK as well ..... they even list their prices in GBP...... Very cool.... Can't afford one but hey! still a nice machine. Like Si said, not as adaptable as a phlatprinter but cool for 3D sign making though.

What would be useful is if we could get hold of the software for them and see what sort of files it outputs. It looks really easy to use. I'm wondering if it would be adaptable to the phlatprinter for 3D cutting.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

 

Foz, apparently the software is propietary to the machine and doesn't use Gcode which seems to be its major downfall. There's a PDF available which shows exploded views of the machines components if you want to see what's inside : http://www.carvewright.com/images/servi ... manual.pdf

Si.

 

I do like the bit holder it has though, it has a quick change bit tool, would be easy to adapt to the PP it looks like

 

Instead of a tool changer, how about multiple Dremels/Rotozips? Check this video out:

http://www.camaster.com/index.php

 

Ok, after weighing up all my options for a Dremel upgrade I decided to give the 'wood carver' option a go. I'd settled on buying a light duty router and a separate flex-drive unit, but having looked into flex-drive options I couldn't find one that I was happy with; all the decent ones had chucks rather than collets.

I ordered the wood carver (Heavy Duty Flexible Drive Unit) from the link in my first post, along with a 25mm (1") diameter handpiece. This was delivered on Thursday and I was pleasently suprised with how well built the unit was.


The motor is rated at 1/4hp, 300W input and 150W output power. For comparison, the dremel is rated at 125W input and 85W output and a Rotozip RZ5 is 600W input but I haven't found the output power figures.


Speed is controlled from 0-20,000 RPM using the supplied footpedal. Removing the top of the pedal revealed a linear potentiometer which can be used to set the spindle speed.


I've extended the slider of the pot using a piece of brass tubing and cut a slot in the top of the footpedal so that I can vary the speed of the spindle without having the electronics exposed.


The collets used in the handpiece of the carver are much more substantial than the ones that the dremel uses. From what i've read this should help reduce runout. The photo above shows a Dremel collet on the left compared to two of the carver collets.

On Friday I decided I better work out how to mount the handpiece to the z-gantry. My first thought was to buy a couple of pipe brackets, however everything seems to be made from plastic these days :roll: . I did manage to get hold of a couple of galvanised brackets in the end, but I wasn't too happy with the quality of them and also they would need shimming to get the right offset from the gantry.
I gave the handpiece to a friend of mine who is a toolmaker and 2 hours later he came back to me with 2 mounting blocks he'd made for me to try out. I'm still not sure why he made me two of them, but I wasn't going to complain




I was a bit worried about the weight of the mounting block so I weighed one of them with the handpiece inserted, suprisingly it weighed less than the Dremel by approx 100g.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Si Attached files

 

Thanks guys, it's looking promising so far.

Mark, it feels pretty powerful to me. I set the speed control to a slow RPM and couldn't stop the spindle with my fingers...Infact it was a pretty stupid thing to do as I got a friction burn .
I tried cutting my test piece of 3mm birch ply using a 1.5mm chipbreaker bit (freehand) just to check that the spindle stood a chance of outperforming the Dremel. It passed the test and cut through the ply without any effort, although it was pretty difficult to control accurately using one hand.

If the Rotozip flex shaft (and spares) were easily obtainable in the UK then i'd probably have gone for one instead of the power carver. The inner shaft has a circular female fitting on the motor end, it has a small flat inside which matches the flat on the motor's shaft and is locked in position with a grub screw. The handpiece end is keyed to match the slot in the handpiece's shaft.

Here's a photo of the modified pedal/speed controller:


Hopefully i'll have some Phlatprinter test cuts later today.

Si. Attached files

 

Ok, I've just got everything setup and done some test cuts...

I ran a test cut using the same piece of ply and some g-code i'd created in the summer for a servo tray for one of my balsa models. I'd previously used the same piece of ply for testing using the Dremel (which nearly caused a fire as the cutting bit got so hot!). The photo below shows the two cuts (I didn't get the position quite right and they overlapped :? ), if you look carefully you'll see the burn marks the dremel caused cutting the motor mount at 5ipm. The servo tray was cut using the same cutting bit, but this time at 15ipm with the flex-shaft tool, hopefully you can see that there is no sign of scorching this time.


The next test I tried was cutting a piece of PCB material using the same chipbreaker bit and the same feedrates. This time I used the motor mount file as this tends to show up any inacuracies very easily. The file has tabs set at 80% depth at the end of each of the 4 legs, two cut nicely but the bit broke through the surface of the other two.


I forgot to take a photo of the z-gantry before I put the printer back together, but i've taken a shot that shows the handpiece through the slot :


The handpiece isn't mounted as centrally as i'd hoped, but i'm happy with it for now. The big bonus besides the increased cutting power is that I can now change cutting bits more easily than I could with the Dremel. Collets and bits are changed by inserting a metal rod into the hole in the side of the handpiece which prevents the flex-shaft turning and then loosening the (black) locking nut with a box spanner/socket. The metal rod is bent in an 'L' shape so it can be inserted into the handpiece from above the cutting slot.

Si. Attached files

 

Nice job Si...I think thats another mod for the list when my dremel finally pops its clogs :roll:

 

Thanks guys, glad you like it

Mark, it was pretty easy to put together. I had to drill a couple of holes in the z-gantry to mount the new spindle after i'd removed the existing U-bolts and Dremel. I mounted the motor under the bench that my Phlatprinter is on and routed a slot in the bench for the flex-shaft to pass through.

I'm not exactly sure why the wood didn't burn this time, but I have a couple of theories....
There may have been more runout in the Dremel collet which caused more friction as the bit cut throught the wood?
The metal handpiece and more substantial collet might have acted as a heatsink to keep the bit cooler?
I think the most likely reason is simply that the new motor/spindle has far more torque than the Dremel. When the ply was cut with the Dremel I could hear the motor's rpm increase during travelling moves, the new motor's rpm seemed much more constant throughout the cut. When you consider the size of the motor i'm using now compared to the one inside the Dremel (or even the one in a Rotozip) it's noticably larger.
These wood carvers/pendant drills appear to be used quite a lot for dressing welds which I would imagine gives them quite a work out.

I'd be interested to hear how the HarborFreight version compares if anyone tries it. It's half the price of the one I bought, but appears to have identical power ratings.

Si.