What are we doing that takes 4 hours

[OneTimeWoodcraft]

I posted this question in the gallery but there seems to be a lot more action here. I keep hearing about being 4 hours into a project, 2 hours into a project. What are we doing that takes 4 hours? That is a long time for any machine to run continuously. Second question and i asked this before..Are these high production shops here. What is the main product? signs, plaqes, drawer fronts, cabinet doors..what..

[alan.galbraith]

I have done a couple of carves that took 1 hour. The length of time seems to depend on the quality setting of the carving. I haven't much but i can see how some of these carvings that are being done thake that long.

[Kenm810]

Carve time is relative to the type and quality of a project,
I have carved very graceful 14"x36" Vector V-Groove projects that have taken 15 Minutes.
Also very detailed 12"x 32" Raster Carved projects that have taken 6 Hours or more,
the quality setting you use for a project can also lengthen or shorten your carving time considerably.

[twiceretired]

To give you an idea of the carving time, I’m doing the last supper. The final project will be 5”X 9”, AND VERY DETAILED. The project was posted on the forum some time ago and I can’t remember who posted it, but thank you. I have carved this before as a fund raiser for the Church Women’s Ministry Salad Luncheon. This is the estimated time provided by the program, total time will vary depending on how many times you stop it to vacuum the chips out, etc
Draft Quality time is 1:30:20, Normal is 1:58:15, Best is 2:53:39; Optimal is 4:00:40

Started for the 1st post, and ended on the 2nd, therefore the title change, sorry.

[OneTimeWoodcraft]

I can understand easily how detail would increase the time. Quality will also do it just like the settings on your printer..draft is much quicker..also saves on ink..so size alone is not the deciding factor..i get it..

[brdad]

I've been using optimal more and more. Less sanding if any at the finish, and it does take more time, but that gives me more time to clean up my work area while I am waiting. Recently I accidentally carved a double project in normal mode, and was 5 or 6 hours between the two sanding and brushing.

Since the CW uses less than .4 Kilowatt hours every hour it runs, which equates to less than 5 cents an hour at my local rate, I am not going to worry about the extra power consumption.

The only thing you have to figure then is how much wear and tear on the machine there is in the different quality settings.

[Icutone2]

I feel that the extra time spent carving is well worth the time saved finishing!
Lee

[deemon328]

I ran a 6"x8" double sided trivet at 3.5 hours with maximum carving quality. I find that I rarely carve anything under 2 hours anymore.

[TIMCOSBY]

19 hour carve and i did a 14 hour one of a 6' long x 13" wide dragon. depends on what you want to carve and how big and at what quality. the 14 hour one was befor we got optimal no tellin how long it would take on optimal. welcome to the forum.

[CarverJerry]

Yesterday I carved the coin caddy in optimal setting, took a little over 4 hours but compaired to the first one set on normal, this one is going to require a lot less time putting on a finish. Well worth the extra machine time vs sanding and sanding and sanding again. And I learned just a short while ago that the optimal setting is only available on the upload to card screen and not in designer itself.