Compucarve Missing......

[Digitalwoodshop]

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....

[Ike]

Al, I checked the Sears site and found the CC, so I not sure they stop selling them?

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/search_10153_12605?keyword=compucarve&x=19&y=11&vName=Tools

Ike

[MikeON]

The local Sears store still had one on display when I was there a few days ago.

[fwharris]

Al,
I noticed the same thing in the catalog. Had me thinking the same thing as you. Not sure if the dance is over or not (yet) as they still show on the site and regular price.

The post about people picking up some of the accessories at a way reduced price also had the inquiring minds thinking that something might be up..

Think Sear's down fall with the machine was people in the stores having no clue about the machine. Also having very few stores that even had them on the shelves. That leads to lack of customer support.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Good point.... Never thought to check the website....

Would love to have been a "Fly on the Wall" in that meeting deciding to NOT include it in the TOOL CATALOG.....

Doing Taxes today.... Waiting on Artwork Approval on the Wyoming Job.:mrgreen:

:rolleyes:

AL

[temler]

I was told by a friend of a friend at Sears that they are still going to sell but have moved them up to the professional line of things and not in standard catalog like there pro table saws and planners and bigger tools. The 5 year warranty killed them on their profit on there machine and they need to put it some where where they can stop offering the extended warranty, this is just what this one person told me and i would not hold my breath on that. But I don't think that LHR is going to be hurt as much now as if they would of parted way 2 years ago. I have to agree with you guys below on that. I just hope they still keep selling the parts because it is so much easier to order them from sears on line. I have to say at this point right now I repair more CC machines than i do CW machines, i think that is because of being easier to get at Sears. Since there is no other place around here to buy them. I have been thinking about maybe seeing about being a dealer and that way they would have local support and maybe even offer some classes or something like that. We have to wait and see how this new Pain pump they installed in my back works. I have been asked to sell other brands of products so if someone brings me a tool to fix i will have something new to sell them, but i never want to upset the competition, like i work on Dewalt tools and if someone brought a dewalt tool to work on and it was unrepairable and i talked them into the tool i sold like Makita (if that was the brand i sold) then Dewalt found out that i sold them the competition, they would not be too happy and would pull my dewalt repair shop links and stuff other stuff.
O well enough is enough, how did i get off on this tangent.
Sorry about that but what i was trying to say was i don't think sears is giving up yet but i think they need to tighten there belts on giving out so many free machine as replacements for warranty repairs, they did that in the past because of no enough repair center of there own, so maybe that is what they need to do is get more repair center and fix instead of replacing and then maybe they could make some profit.
Just my 2 1/2 cents worth. :mrgreen:
Thanks for putting up with me
Tim

[Digitalwoodshop]

Tim,

Good point..... I should request a Professional Product Catalog...

Hope the Pump works out....

AL

[liquidguitars]

Then there was the C1 Capacitor on the X Termination Boards.... Only HIGH Hour users got this. Caused by QC Vibration. Thanks RON !!!!

Cool Al nice review,

Question- would this C1 cap make for uneven carving or just fail?

LG

[Digitalwoodshop]

The C1 on the X Termination board is part of the on off circuit of the cut motor. Unless you are hearing the Cut Motor make variations in speed then it would not cause that.

What would.....

1. 1 or 2 of the bolts under the machine holding the smooth rods that the head rides up and down on could be loose... Letting the whole top head assembly move UP off the Sand Paper Belts causing uneven carving.

2. Y Bearing is not locked in the full closed position. Red nail Polish on the flat of the bearing nut lets you see at a glance that the bearing is fully closed or tightened on to the rails. It is hard to see without it.

3. Z Bearing the same, not locked in the full closed position.

4. Belt on the back of the Z Truck could have loose screws holding the belt.

5. Screws holding the Z Motor to the machine or the screws holding the gear box to the motor are loose.

6. Encoder on the Z has a loose Clear code wheel on the shaft.

7. Y Belt Tension device on the right side is Loose causing out of sync left to right transition. Slop in the Y movement.... I drilled a small hole in the top of my plastic cover to use a long screwdriver to snug the screw holding the Y belt return and Cut Motor Electrical Cover.

8. Head is not level..... to the belts.... The Cross Connector Rod Gear has slipped.... Raises and lowers the left and right side at the same time... It comes loose and only one side raises.... The Gears are only held by a screw... It comes loose and you skip 1 tooth.... You are no longer level left to right.

Every one is extreme but over time vibration and use takes it's toll on the machine and things come loose....

I check this whole list when I clean and lube my machines when they need it.... Makes a big difference.... Plus ROTATE the Y Rails and Z Rails to move damaged areas to the back.... SAME with the Vertical Smooth Rails.... That the head raises and lowers on... ROTATE them once a year..... And lube..... A Off Level Head NICKS them....

Good Luck,:-D

AL