CNC has made it. Not like Paris Hilton or an Olympic athlete, but it has hit the main stream. Costs have come down enough that the amateur machinist is working away in his garage. You can also find tons and tons of info on the Internet about CNC. All of this has created a critical mass and pushed this obscure hobby out into the light.
How do you know we hit the mainstream? In a word, Sears. Craftsman now has a CNC Wood Router in their fleet of tools.
The tool’s name is CompuCarve. It is relatively small and can do basic wood routing. It is a black box design with proprietary design software.
As of this writing it is around $2,000. When it first came out, there were reports of bugs. Those reports have died down as the design stabilizes and is improved.
The Sears CNC Wood Router is actually manufactured by CarveWright. It looks like Sears partnered with them to get this first unit on the market. It is aimed at the woodworker that wants to go to the next level in their hobby.
Ivan is active in Carvewright and Compucarve Craftsman. G-Code is one of his expertise.
