Tag Archives: inventables

General, Karv Woodworking

Building the X-CARVE for KÄRV Woodworking

As mentioned in our previous post … we are in the process of creating and setting up a sister company to Kentech Inc. … called KÄRV.

KÄRV will allow us to take our metalworking talents … along with the Kipware® software we designed and built at Kentech … to the woodworking stage as we create custom, handmade furniture and unique wood carvings and introduce them to the KÄRV product line.

We will be using our quoting and estimating software to help determine pricing … and our conversational CNC programming software to help create G code programs for our X-CARVE CNC router.

And all along the way … we will be blogging about it all here. So we invite you to visit often and see Kipware® in action … and maybe even discover some KÄRV products that you might like to own !!

We began back on October 22 by registering KÄRV as a business in our city … started setting up our workshop … ordered our X-CARVE … and now we have completed the build and test cut for the X-CARVE.

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We waited for a little over (3) weeks to receive the X-CARVE … which seemed like an eternity … after we placed the order. That was a little disappointing. Of course the X-CARVE came un-assembled … and in many many pieces. But the good new was the step-by-step instructions available from INVENTABLES … the creators of the X-CARVE were just fabulous. Very in-depth … easy to follow … and coupled with some patience we went from box to completed assembly in about 24 total hours. One not-so-nice event was that while we were able to build the complete machine … the controller was back-ordered. So the completed machine sat and waited for almost 1 week while we waited for the controller. Finally we had to make a few calls to INVENTABLES to gently nudge them and we received the controller … and set out to test carve.

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We decided to program some simple lettering for our test cut … and make a little sign for the workshop. We used Vectric VCARVE software which we bought from INVENTABLES when we purchased our X-CARVE. The software appears to be quite powerful and it was real easy to create our desired toolpath.

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We cut the letters reversed … leaving .010 of material on the back edge just to hold everything together. Then we glued the letters to a backing piece of wood … turned the whole assemble over and sanded off the .010 of material to reveal the letters. Not bad for a first sample.

So now we are ready to move onto bigger and better things !!
Stay tuned … or visit us at www.KarvWoodworking.com

Kenney Skonieczny – President
Kentech Inc.

Kipware® Programming Software

Kipware® Compatibility with Inventables ShapeOko and X-Carve

As word gets out about the ease-of-use and power of KipwareM® conversational CNC programming software … we are starting to get more and more inquiries from the MAKER community concerning one of the more popular MAKER machines out there … the ShapeOko and now the X-Carve from Inventables. Clients want to know if the code generated by KipwareM® is compatible with the G code requirements for the X-Carve.

Looking and researching the extensive information available from Inventables … we can find the information below :

“The X-Carve is using GRBL81 An open source, embedded, high performance g-code-parser and CNC milling controller written in optimized C that will run on a straight Arduino. Standard g-code is supported.”

While GRBL81 is still basically operational and functional … it also appears to be in a state of constant development and enhancements. Great job guys !! It is still a very basic system … but it does support basic standard programming … G01/G02/G03 … and is completely compatible with the KipwareM® standard output.

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Here is a list of G codes for GRBL81 … and all supported out-of-the-box by KipwareM® :

“The G-code interpreter implements a subset of the NIST rs274/ngc standard and … linear, circular and helical motion are all fully supported.”

  • Supported G-Codes in v0.9i
    • G38.3, G38.4, G38.5: Probing
    • G40: Cutter Radius Compensation Modes
    • G61: Path Control Modes
    • G91.1: Arc IJK Distance Modes
  • Supported G-Codes in v0.9h
    • G38.2: Probing
    • G43.1, G49: Dynamic Tool Length Offsets
  • Supported G-Codes in v0.8 (and v0.9)
    • G0, G1: Linear Motions
    • G2, G3: Arc and Helical Motions
    • G4: Dwell
    • G10 L2, G10 L20: Set Work Coordinate Offsets
    • G17, G18, G19: Plane Selection
    • G20, G21: Units
    • G28, G30: Go to Pre-Defined Position
    • G28.1, G30.1: Set Pre-Defined Position
    • G53: Move in Absolute Coordinates
    • G54, G55, G56, G57, G58, G59: Work Coordinate Systems
    • G80: Motion Mode Cancel
    • G90, G91: Distance Modes
    • G92: Coordinate Offset
    • G92.1: Clear Coordinate System Offsets
    • G93, G94: Feedrate Modes
    • M0, M2, M30: Program Pause and End
    • M3, M4, M5: Spindle Control
    • M8, M9: Coolant Control

While there is still a lot of functions … like spindle control … that is dependent on the controller and it’s set-up … KipwareM® can support most modes and set-up … out-of-the-box.

Using the unique “Post Editor” in Kipware® conversational … users can easily create the auto-output of the HEADER lines required for the GRBL language. The G code output needs to place an initialization block at the beginning of your program to set all of the G-code modes explicitly for your program. These are things such as mm/inch modes ( G20/G21) , incremental/absolute modes (G90/G91), feedrate modes(G94/G95), plane selection (G17-G18-G19), or work coordinate system (G54-G59). These can easily be set-up in the Kipware® conversational Post Editor.

It also appears that DRILLING cycles are not yet included … but KipwareM® gives you a standard, long hand G code output capability for drilling that will enable you to go beyond the Inventable’s EASEL programming software and create drilling operations for your machine. All from a fill-in-the-blank format.

Users are referred to use the UNIVERSAL G-CODE SENDER application that is written in JAVA that will send the G code and communicate with the machine to run the G code created outside of Inventables EASEL application. You can get additional information on the Universal G Code Sender HERE.

As of this post writing … Kentech Inc. is looking into the possibilities of purchasing an X-Carve from Inventables and testing and developing our KipwareM® software to be more and fully compatible with the X-Carve.

So stay tuned … we are looking forward to an opportunity to work with Inventables and their equipment … and the MAKER community. It should be a fun ride

You can check out KipwareM® by CLICKING HERE.

Kenney Skonieczny – President

Kentech Inc.