[Woodcarver] CarveWright

[Mike Bloomquist]

Lynn,

Neat demo, thanks for the link.

I went to the P. Graham Dunn Gallery once in Dalton, Ohio.  It was
advertised as a woodcarving gallery and I was real disappointed when I
discovered they did their inspirational carvings with computer controlled
routers.  Still, I am also a computer geek and I kept my disappointment to
myself and checked it out anyway.  I was honestly impressed with how this
entrepreneur had programmed the computer to mimic woodcarving cuts,
especially incised lettering.  The machine actually reproduced the carving
strokes used to make the carving.  It was much more sophisticated then
carving signs with letter templates and a router, and took full advantage of
being able to finely control the depth of the router bit simultaneous with
its Cartesian X-Y position (left/right, top/bottom).  The cuts made by this
machine were actually sweeping and three dimensional.

This seems to be only one shade up from the router and template approach.
The demo person was honest up front when he said it works like a printer.
Seeing it in action, I believe those design scans are simply a series of
data points recording the left-right position, top-bottom position and depth
of several hundred thousands (several million?) positions across the
carving.  It’s like recording the shape of a mountain by starting at the
southeast corner and walking very carefully east to west recording your
altitude at every step, then taking a short step north and walking very
carefully west to east recording your altitude at every step
 north again
then east to west
 short step north and west to east, until you end up at
the northwest corner.  All the machine is doing is mimicking that path at a
scale suitable for the wood used.

If it sells well, I predict a “sensor bit” and software upgrade that would
allow you to scan your own masters into the computer chip.  Still, like most
of you so far, I prefer hand tools and a mallet (OK, OK
 occasionally a
Foredom tool and VERY rarely a router
 but guided by hand and eye).  Again
Lynn, kewl link.

Keep on Carvin'
-Mike B.->


-----Original Message-----
From: woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net
[mailto:woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net] On Behalf Of Lynn Diel
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 7:58 AM
To: [Woodcarver]
Subject: [Woodcarver] CarveWright

Folks
Did anyone see the advertisement on TV for The CarveWright from Sears?
If not, here is the website and a demonstration movie.  Price tag from the
ad was around $1995

http://www.carvewright.com/carvewright2.mov

It would appear that this is the way folks can do relief carving quickly.
IMHO, I think it will be a big seller, since it makes (CNC Computer
Numerical Control) available for the home handyman.  The demo carving is
pretty detailed.

Philosophically, I am not sure what it will do to promote the appreciation
for those who provide that art and discipline of carving by hand.  
If these take off and a lot of carvings start appearing maybe a renaissance
in the manual arts will be an outfall. Perhaps people will gain an
appreciation for the fine workmanship of those who carve by hand.  One can
only pray that it does :)

Blessings and Peace.
Lynn