1013 IntelliCarve Automatic Carving Machine

Spent two years researching these types of products before purchasing the 1013. Just finished my first project, a test sign with some graphics and I am impressed with this machine. Worked the first time out of the box by just following the instructions (which could be improved)and the machine went to work carving out the sign. The basic carving and design went well, though I have a lot of work to do in getting used to the software part of it (used the wrong bit I think and made the sign too small for the fonts used). Many of the items I'd researched on the web made me think that this would be a huge generator of sawdust and extremely loud - like every other machine of it's ilk. However, this machine really isn't that loud, I set it to running in a closed garage and could barely hear it inside the house at all. In normal mode, it took an hour and six minutes to carve this little sign, so it's not a quick thing for those of you without patience. But my first impression is that it is well worth the money, I'm happy so far.

** DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ** This unit is the biggest piece of trash that I have ever purchased. I ordered my first unit and received it in two days. Upon opening the box, the Gray scale CD fell out onto the floor. There was no case,it was not even wrapped in any kind of packing. The included plastic tool box was crushed and missing two of the wrenches that were supposed to be included. The unit was dented on the front and had several loose screws. After plugging it in, the unit took close to an hour to power up. Once it finally powered up, I was able to make exactly ONE cut before receiving an "electrical error" message on the screen. After attempting to restart the unit several times, I contacted Amazon and requested a replacement. I received my replacement unit five days later. I opened the box, and same story, the CD was unwrapped and fell out on the floor. I placed the unit on the table stand and powered it up. The cutting arm would not return to the home position, and two screws and washers fell out of the cutting assembly and landed on the material deck. I can see having issues with one unit, but when two out of two are defective, that is where I draw the line. I have requested a full refund from Amazon, and will use the $2200.00 I spent on this unit towards the purchase of a quality product. If it were possible to rate this item with negative stars, that is exactly what I would do !!I want to specify that my issue is not with Amazon.com. The service I have received from them throughout this ordeal has been fantastic.

The most positive things I can say about this machine is that it is built like a tank! Very sturdy and I could find no flex in the gantry or anywhere. It carved images very well and the spindle is surprisingly quiet, I could listen to the radio in my shop while it was carving. The way the images supplied with the unit are carved is interesting. I carves a lot like a printer prints. The "X" axis moves the Cutter across the wood while the "Z" Axis provides the relief to the image. As the "X" axis reached the end of its programmed travel the "Y" axis, which is the table to which the wood is secured, increments on the order of seven to ten thousandths of an inch. So in the analogy of the printer, the wood is the paper.Using the software is easy. once the image is loaded and a few simple data boxes are filled in it generates a file with the extension of .GEE. This is copied to a flash drive. The flash drive is then inserted into a USB port on the carver. The system is homed first by the software using prompts on the LCD Panel. Then a zero point is chosen by the user on the wood for X, Y and Z using the key pads. The position is then zeroed using the key pads. Finally the carver is told to "process" the file. Sit back and watch it work.The manual states that the carver can accept G Code to carve other things. This is the downfall of the carver. I tried 5 different well known software packages widely used in the CNC world, none supported the Intellicarver directly. For the most part the carver did nothing. The iPicture software included was supposed to be able to translate a G Code file into a .GEE file. It did so but the carver failed to carve anything. It appears to append only a header to the file and change the extension to .GEE. I had moderate to low success using one of the software packages to carve a wing spar in pine. The problem was that the Y axis could not position the table accurately to allow several passes through the wood where the Z Axis was incremented to carve a little deeper each pass. I even tried to "Air" carve the file where I set the carver up so it thought it was carving wood but in fact was above the wood. Even then, the Y Axis became lost after the first pass. The X Axis made a horrible racket, louder than the spindle noise!I packed it up and sent it back to Amazon. In retrospect it is possible that the Y axis was designed to accomplish what I wanted, but the control software in the carver was not able to process the commands. I might have been able to replace the "brains" of the carver with another computer/driver set up and then it might have worked as a free carving machine using standard G Code. I thought this option was probably not a good one at the time. It would have cost several hundred dollars more. I might have been able to petition Oliver to update the internal firmware as well. But but if they never did so, I would have been stuck with the machine.If you want the capability of lithopanes and carving relief panels and that is all, then this is an option at a reasonable cost. If you want to carve objects then it is not. I gave it a two star rating because of the sturdiness of the machine, this would be a 4 or 5 star by itself. But the fact that I could not carve objects, like a mantle clock body, I can only give it a 2 star rating.One further note, the box my carver came in had two additional packing memo pouches on the box not including the one for my purchase. There was saw dust inside the machine as well. I suspect that this machine was shipped at least twice before it was shipped to me. So I think it might have been defective, or, two owners before me found it lacking in capability as I did and sent it back.