Digitalwoodshop
03-06-2010, 12:55 PM
No I did not loose one of my machines.... But the new Sears TOOL Catalog arrived yesterday and quickly flipping thought it from cover to cover 3 times..... NO Compucarve...... Looks like the Honeymoon is over....
With all the outlets that CarveWright has now, I don't think it will be a very big deal. The "Dance" LHR and SEARS or Designer / Manufacturer and Retail Advertising, Sales and Market has quietly come to an end....
Without that FIRST "Prime Time" Discovery Channel TV Ad, I would not have found the machine as fast.... It litterly changed my Business overnight... I had a Shop Bot in my plans for about 3 years down the road.... The CW was at a "RIGHT NOW" Price..... I had my SEARS Card with a Zero Balance out and I was on the phone and had one "Reserved" within the hour.... I have never looked back....
Sorry to see the Dance is over but I am happy with the direction LHR has gone in the last 3 years.
Would still love to see LHR develop a 4th Axis Sled to be able to cut and decorate Spindles for Stairways, Walking Sticks, wooden curtain rods and Towel Rods.
I think the work I am doing with Engraving Tags could catch on for Award Shops and Engravers to convert Sheet Stock to Tags. Not that many shops have Rotary Engravers with a table size to hold a whole sheet 12 x 24. Most have smaller machines like the one I have that is 9 x 12 inch bed.
Sometimes doors must close before new doors can open....
LHR and SEARS was somewhat like a blind date.... They hit it off fast and furious but cooled off as time went on.... I believe the SEARS Liberal Trade In Policy resulted in many unnecessary returns. Many of the people returning the machine did so many times. With no disrespect to the people who returned the machines, a better policy would have been to correct the problem with the first machine.
In the early times it was a short list of very common problems....
Z Stall... 16 wire FSC cables didn't provide enough current to prevent Z Stalls... The Z Bundle took care of that with a heavier 14 pin FSC cable.
L2 Power Supply Failures due to vibration of the "lolly pop" of a L2 coil until the wire broke. Light Glue on the coil caused this. More GLUE solved the problem plus getting a ROCK resulting in less vibration.
CCM or Check Cut Motor... All about the Magnet in the cut motor flying off the shaft as the solvent in the flex cable caused the heat shrink holding the magnet to let go. The Plastic Magnet holder fixed that...
The Start of carve CCM we get today, I believe is a "Quirk" in the Uploading of the project to the card. The software that takes Designer and converts it to machine language. A Bit Speed "Parameter" is not loading correct if I were a "Guessing MAN".... It's just a nascence alarm.
Then there were QC problems from spitting out bits to wobbling bits with BB marks in the Bit Holder. I won't beat that Dead Horse..... :mrgreen: Thanks RON !!!!
Then there was the C1 Capacitor on the X Termination Boards.... Only HIGH Hour users got this. Caused by QC Vibration. Thanks RON !!!!
Then there was the blind Board Sensors..... LHR Gluing of the board to the plastic holder prevented 2 things.... The LED's from breaking off and helped prevent DUST from getting inside the plastic lens. Both a good thing....
I think the Left Side cover switch should have been a magnetic Reed Switch from the beginning.... That would have prevented the open style mechanical switch from all the dust related problems....
So there you have it..... My take on the CW....
I can contribute about 1/2 of my GROSS Sales this year to the CW.... Without it, I would be a very different business... And likely NOT BE IN BUSINESS..... My Laser Engraving first business plan just would not have survived the economic downturn.
My Laser friend Lisa about 50 miles from me left the paper company 3 years ago and bought a $30K Laser Engraver. Started a home business... Did well the first year the sales went FLAT to POOR... A Change in her Life resulted in here being the family head and sole bread winner..... The Laser just did not keep the lights on.... She had to sell the laser....
Went back to a NIGHT SHIFT job...... With Kids and work.... Not a very happy girl.... Then about 2 months ago she saw a job for a Laser Engraver Operator in a business 30 minutes away.... She interviewed with about 90 people.... Her Epilog and Corel Draw Experience put her #1.... Now she works regular hours and gets the all important medical benifits..... You GO GIRL..... She operated the Laser Engraver that marks Metal.... A YAG type Laser called a Fibermark.... So a door closed for her and another opened....
http://www.teamworld.com/twc/aboutus.php
Picture... Lisa's Laser :-D
As for the future.... We might see more regional CarveWright Dealers take over the sales and SERVICE in many "Local" areas.
AL
PS: As for the SEARS TOOL Catalog..... I believe they packed MORE products per page this year then any other year.... Getting MORE BANG for the buck... And there are a lot more "WOW" Products then ever before... And a bigger line of similar products.... Lots of EYE CANDY....
With all the outlets that CarveWright has now, I don't think it will be a very big deal. The "Dance" LHR and SEARS or Designer / Manufacturer and Retail Advertising, Sales and Market has quietly come to an end....
Without that FIRST "Prime Time" Discovery Channel TV Ad, I would not have found the machine as fast.... It litterly changed my Business overnight... I had a Shop Bot in my plans for about 3 years down the road.... The CW was at a "RIGHT NOW" Price..... I had my SEARS Card with a Zero Balance out and I was on the phone and had one "Reserved" within the hour.... I have never looked back....
Sorry to see the Dance is over but I am happy with the direction LHR has gone in the last 3 years.
Would still love to see LHR develop a 4th Axis Sled to be able to cut and decorate Spindles for Stairways, Walking Sticks, wooden curtain rods and Towel Rods.
I think the work I am doing with Engraving Tags could catch on for Award Shops and Engravers to convert Sheet Stock to Tags. Not that many shops have Rotary Engravers with a table size to hold a whole sheet 12 x 24. Most have smaller machines like the one I have that is 9 x 12 inch bed.
Sometimes doors must close before new doors can open....
LHR and SEARS was somewhat like a blind date.... They hit it off fast and furious but cooled off as time went on.... I believe the SEARS Liberal Trade In Policy resulted in many unnecessary returns. Many of the people returning the machine did so many times. With no disrespect to the people who returned the machines, a better policy would have been to correct the problem with the first machine.
In the early times it was a short list of very common problems....
Z Stall... 16 wire FSC cables didn't provide enough current to prevent Z Stalls... The Z Bundle took care of that with a heavier 14 pin FSC cable.
L2 Power Supply Failures due to vibration of the "lolly pop" of a L2 coil until the wire broke. Light Glue on the coil caused this. More GLUE solved the problem plus getting a ROCK resulting in less vibration.
CCM or Check Cut Motor... All about the Magnet in the cut motor flying off the shaft as the solvent in the flex cable caused the heat shrink holding the magnet to let go. The Plastic Magnet holder fixed that...
The Start of carve CCM we get today, I believe is a "Quirk" in the Uploading of the project to the card. The software that takes Designer and converts it to machine language. A Bit Speed "Parameter" is not loading correct if I were a "Guessing MAN".... It's just a nascence alarm.
Then there were QC problems from spitting out bits to wobbling bits with BB marks in the Bit Holder. I won't beat that Dead Horse..... :mrgreen: Thanks RON !!!!
Then there was the C1 Capacitor on the X Termination Boards.... Only HIGH Hour users got this. Caused by QC Vibration. Thanks RON !!!!
Then there was the blind Board Sensors..... LHR Gluing of the board to the plastic holder prevented 2 things.... The LED's from breaking off and helped prevent DUST from getting inside the plastic lens. Both a good thing....
I think the Left Side cover switch should have been a magnetic Reed Switch from the beginning.... That would have prevented the open style mechanical switch from all the dust related problems....
So there you have it..... My take on the CW....
I can contribute about 1/2 of my GROSS Sales this year to the CW.... Without it, I would be a very different business... And likely NOT BE IN BUSINESS..... My Laser Engraving first business plan just would not have survived the economic downturn.
My Laser friend Lisa about 50 miles from me left the paper company 3 years ago and bought a $30K Laser Engraver. Started a home business... Did well the first year the sales went FLAT to POOR... A Change in her Life resulted in here being the family head and sole bread winner..... The Laser just did not keep the lights on.... She had to sell the laser....
Went back to a NIGHT SHIFT job...... With Kids and work.... Not a very happy girl.... Then about 2 months ago she saw a job for a Laser Engraver Operator in a business 30 minutes away.... She interviewed with about 90 people.... Her Epilog and Corel Draw Experience put her #1.... Now she works regular hours and gets the all important medical benifits..... You GO GIRL..... She operated the Laser Engraver that marks Metal.... A YAG type Laser called a Fibermark.... So a door closed for her and another opened....
http://www.teamworld.com/twc/aboutus.php
Picture... Lisa's Laser :-D
As for the future.... We might see more regional CarveWright Dealers take over the sales and SERVICE in many "Local" areas.
AL
PS: As for the SEARS TOOL Catalog..... I believe they packed MORE products per page this year then any other year.... Getting MORE BANG for the buck... And there are a lot more "WOW" Products then ever before... And a bigger line of similar products.... Lots of EYE CANDY....