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gigaom.com: The home creating space is increasingly moving from the garage to the desktop, and the latest evidence is Carvey, a CNC machine the size of a microwave that can carve pretty much anything you want out of wood, metal and other materials.
17 comments:
Tyler Jacobson
said...
This could be an interesting machine to use and it'll be more interesting to see what products come out of it's use. While theoretically it could come in very handy for smaller businesses and artists I'm not sure if the price tag outweighs its usefulness. The other big question and concern I have looking at this is that many small businesses and artists have the brand of making things by hand so I'd be concerned that a business would get this and still try to market themselves still as a made by hand retailer. So while I think this device is a good idea and can be very useful for a lot of people and it'll be useful to see how this technology progresses.
This is another advance in the consumer and small business grade prototyping and milling market. This is very similar to the advances in 3-d printing where they keep getting more available, better, and cheaper. The Carvey is filling a very niche market but it looks like it will be very successful. The kickstarter goal was $50,000 and with 23 days left they have already raised half a million dollars. Clearly there is demand for this product. I can see it being very useful for small businesses, artists, and makers. Small businesses can do rapid prototyping or possibly even manufacture their own products. The possibilities for artists would be endless, being able to mill small scale pieces would be a huge resource. Makers could arguably have the most to gain from this product. $2,000 for this machine is also an incredibly reasonable price. How long before one of these is sitting in PTM?
A very cool concept and a really handy tool to have but it seems like it would have a small group of people to market too. It is only really good for small projects which would not be needed by many consumers. If you are an artist or small business owner I can see the benefits but I do not think this would really be a benefit to a large theater company. Even though for most large theater companies $2,000 isn't much money why would you want to spend it on something you may not use very often. Regardless people will probably buy it to say that they have it and because of this fact I suspect CMU may have one in the next couple of years.
I think that the wrong way to look at this machine is how small it is, I mean, that's definitely a good thing in my eyes. Sure it can't carve out something the size of a car, but it can make precise components of something larger which is pretty useful. It is definitely great seeing things like this and 3-D printers coming to a more accessible and wider audience because through that you are definitely going to see more innovating and experimentation come out of these products when they are available to such a wide range of people. It's quite amazing to see just how much money the kickstarter for this product has already received. It really goes to show how many people are eager to get their hangs on something affordable and able to help them create.
This isn't new.... at all. I'm not saying it isn't cool. And of course I would love to have one... But its just a small (still expensive) CNC. Its not even the smallest. For 200 you can get one that is slightly lower quality from Makerbot. It won't look as nice but for the most part it will do the same job. This seems much less like a technological advance and more like a branding one. It looks pretty and the creators have a good sell. I am really confused I am going to go to kickstarter.
Oh. The big sell here is not that its a small CNC, its the software they wrote to go with it. On most CNC mills you have to learn how to use it. They have created a program that just sets everything for you by asking "What material are you using?" So that's really cool, but also takes away a lot of the educational value of the machine. I hope they leave the ability to set your own parameters in the program
I feel like the biggest problem with this machine, just like 3D printing, will be the design portion of the technology. Unless you really understand the concept of three dimensional designing, carving or 3D printing is extremely hard to create designs. That being said, for designers this is such a great tool! It's like an advanced laser cutter and I would love to play around with this product. It seems that a lot of other people do as well, because of how much money they raised for the creation of this product. Maybe we will get one sitting next to the 3D printer?
What a terrific addition to the expanding line of desktop worktools. Add this to your workstation in-between the 3d printer and the laser cutter and you could make and prototype just about anything! And there is definitely an interest in the market for such a machine like this.Like Philip pointed out, the kickstarter page for the Carvey has already surpassed half a million dollars.
I do have some reservations on the Carvey product though. First off, what is the biggest size 3d object that you can carve before the quill gets in the way? And it would be really cool if you could index the location of your cutting material with kinetic teaching of the tool placement. If you could just place an object in the box, like a wooden box for example, and then physically drag the tool over to where it touches the object to tell it it's location. An even more exciting step from that would be to have the cutter be able to do 5 or 6 dimensions instead of three, so that undercuts and coves could be incorporated into designs. This would be achieved either by placing the cutter tool on a more sophisticatedly articulated arm or the object to be cut on a pivoting and moving clamp device. Oh the possibilities!
Carvey seems pretty cool, and beginning at only $2,000 its pretty affordable.
I think it’s also probably useless for this industry, and many others.
What stagecraft purpose could this machine serve? I can’t think of many good applications for it. A spur gear keeps coming to mind, but what theatre can afford effects that require a custom spur gear that can’t also afford a real mill?
I think it’s funny that the article mentions that Carvey cuts out of a solid block of stock, as it that’s a new way to make things. It’s definitely not, but it’s certainly an expensive way to make things.
I understand that the market for this product is home and small business, and I think it fits in perfectly there. I just don’t know how I feel about home and small business users having milling machine on top of their desk. It’s a scary thought.
I’ve been interested in desktop prototyping for a few years now. I was first introduced to it when I went to the World Maker Faire in NYC a couple years ago. While there I saw a number of small milling machines, tabletop cnc routers, 3d printers, 3d extruders…the list goes on. These products have taken off in the DIY and Marker worlds in the last few years, and I certainly think they have their place in small businesses and shops. Carvey stands out but it simplifies the design process greatly. Now for some people this is great….they don’t really want or feel the need to understand the coding or programming processes. Personally, I welcome that challenge and greatly enjoy it. I look forward to the day that I’ve added a tabletop cnc to selection of shop tools because it can add a certain depth to some of my projects. Having said that, there’s something to be said for doing the same work by hand and blood, sweat, and tears that can go into it. It’s a good product with a quality design, Carvey will definitely find traction in a market as some companies have with 3d printers before them.
Without a doubt, this is a great product for consumers. With the explosion of 3D printers, people are definitely wanting to move on to new mediums for their creations and giving them this tool to do it will definitely help. I actually thought about making one of these on my own in the past after getting my 3D printer. Essentially I was just going to use a Dremel and then 3D print which ever parts I needed. However, I don't really see the School of Drama needing one of these, we already have a CNC mill that can do anything this can do I'm sure.
The reason I really like the concept of desktop CNC mills and 3D printers is that it allows a semi affordable way for consumers to get a taste for what designing for these types of machines are like. A desktop mill is a lot less intimidating than a full size one, and it may allow people who have interest in crating things to do so on a smaller and more affordable scale. This may be able to carry over to the educational component of CMU Drama, no we may not need it to actually make things for any productions we run, but it may give students easier access to fussing around with CNC mills, therefor adding to the experience and education they get from the program. Just a thought.
This is a cute devise, but I don’t see much use of it in theater. It is rare that places (at least run of the mill shops) will not be working on such a small scale. Props would try to outsource anything that gets THAT precise. The only purpose I can think of for this in our world that would be really worth it is for the manufacturing of custom hardware or demos. Being able to cut out small metal parts would be cool for a custom project, but then again is it worth the time it takes to draft and cut that piece? That is a constant CNC question and sometimes the answer is yes, but so much of that, again, depends on scale. The starting price for the carver is really great, cheaper than any CNC machine I have seen come out recently. Its affordability should be appealing to small businesses that could profit from a carver, though I am trying to figure out who the perfect target audience members are.
It's always really interesting to look at what gets funded through Kickstarter, and gives a good look into people's priorities. I am wondering whether there is something that would be better printed on a 3D printer than it would be to router using Carvey, which is a rather adorable name? I'm impressed that we've managed to get technology to the point where we can actually build a working tiny CNC router.
Ignoring the product itself, which I think is cool but has been covered by many others already, I am really impressed with the company behind it, Inventables, marketing strategies. I first became aware of the company a few years ago when I discovered a marketing campaign online somewhere where they were giving away $50 gift cards for just visiting the site. I did so and walked away with $48 dollars in free merchandise, which was really cool. Before Carvey was released, they have been sending teaser emails and building hype for months, it is no wonder they met their goal within the first 2 hours, and it is a testament to a fantastic marketing team as much as to a great product.
17 comments:
This could be an interesting machine to use and it'll be more interesting to see what products come out of it's use. While theoretically it could come in very handy for smaller businesses and artists I'm not sure if the price tag outweighs its usefulness. The other big question and concern I have looking at this is that many small businesses and artists have the brand of making things by hand so I'd be concerned that a business would get this and still try to market themselves still as a made by hand retailer. So while I think this device is a good idea and can be very useful for a lot of people and it'll be useful to see how this technology progresses.
This is another advance in the consumer and small business grade prototyping and milling market. This is very similar to the advances in 3-d printing where they keep getting more available, better, and cheaper. The Carvey is filling a very niche market but it looks like it will be very successful. The kickstarter goal was $50,000 and with 23 days left they have already raised half a million dollars. Clearly there is demand for this product. I can see it being very useful for small businesses, artists, and makers. Small businesses can do rapid prototyping or possibly even manufacture their own products. The possibilities for artists would be endless, being able to mill small scale pieces would be a huge resource. Makers could arguably have the most to gain from this product. $2,000 for this machine is also an incredibly reasonable price. How long before one of these is sitting in PTM?
A very cool concept and a really handy tool to have but it seems like it would have a small group of people to market too. It is only really good for small projects which would not be needed by many consumers. If you are an artist or small business owner I can see the benefits but I do not think this would really be a benefit to a large theater company. Even though for most large theater companies $2,000 isn't much money why would you want to spend it on something you may not use very often. Regardless people will probably buy it to say that they have it and because of this fact I suspect CMU may have one in the next couple of years.
I think that the wrong way to look at this machine is how small it is, I mean, that's definitely a good thing in my eyes. Sure it can't carve out something the size of a car, but it can make precise components of something larger which is pretty useful. It is definitely great seeing things like this and 3-D printers coming to a more accessible and wider audience because through that you are definitely going to see more innovating and experimentation come out of these products when they are available to such a wide range of people. It's quite amazing to see just how much money the kickstarter for this product has already received. It really goes to show how many people are eager to get their hangs on something affordable and able to help them create.
This isn't new.... at all. I'm not saying it isn't cool. And of course I would love to have one... But its just a small (still expensive) CNC. Its not even the smallest. For 200 you can get one that is slightly lower quality from Makerbot. It won't look as nice but for the most part it will do the same job. This seems much less like a technological advance and more like a branding one. It looks pretty and the creators have a good sell. I am really confused I am going to go to kickstarter.
Oh. The big sell here is not that its a small CNC, its the software they wrote to go with it. On most CNC mills you have to learn how to use it. They have created a program that just sets everything for you by asking "What material are you using?" So that's really cool, but also takes away a lot of the educational value of the machine. I hope they leave the ability to set your own parameters in the program
I feel like the biggest problem with this machine, just like 3D printing, will be the design portion of the technology. Unless you really understand the concept of three dimensional designing, carving or 3D printing is extremely hard to create designs. That being said, for designers this is such a great tool! It's like an advanced laser cutter and I would love to play around with this product. It seems that a lot of other people do as well, because of how much money they raised for the creation of this product. Maybe we will get one sitting next to the 3D printer?
What a terrific addition to the expanding line of desktop worktools. Add this to your workstation in-between the 3d printer and the laser cutter and you could make and prototype just about anything! And there is definitely an interest in the market for such a machine like this.Like Philip pointed out, the kickstarter page for the Carvey has already surpassed half a million dollars.
I do have some reservations on the Carvey product though. First off, what is the biggest size 3d object that you can carve before the quill gets in the way? And it would be really cool if you could index the location of your cutting material with kinetic teaching of the tool placement. If you could just place an object in the box, like a wooden box for example, and then physically drag the tool over to where it touches the object to tell it it's location. An even more exciting step from that would be to have the cutter be able to do 5 or 6 dimensions instead of three, so that undercuts and coves could be incorporated into designs. This would be achieved either by placing the cutter tool on a more sophisticatedly articulated arm or the object to be cut on a pivoting and moving clamp device. Oh the possibilities!
Carvey seems pretty cool, and beginning at only $2,000 its pretty affordable.
I think it’s also probably useless for this industry, and many others.
What stagecraft purpose could this machine serve? I can’t think of many good applications for it. A spur gear keeps coming to mind, but what theatre can afford effects that require a custom spur gear that can’t also afford a real mill?
I think it’s funny that the article mentions that Carvey cuts out of a solid block of stock, as it that’s a new way to make things. It’s definitely not, but it’s certainly an expensive way to make things.
I understand that the market for this product is home and small business, and I think it fits in perfectly there. I just don’t know how I feel about home and small business users having milling machine on top of their desk. It’s a scary thought.
I’ve been interested in desktop prototyping for a few years now. I was first introduced to it when I went to the World Maker Faire in NYC a couple years ago. While there I saw a number of small milling machines, tabletop cnc routers, 3d printers, 3d extruders…the list goes on. These products have taken off in the DIY and Marker worlds in the last few years, and I certainly think they have their place in small businesses and shops. Carvey stands out but it simplifies the design process greatly. Now for some people this is great….they don’t really want or feel the need to understand the coding or programming processes. Personally, I welcome that challenge and greatly enjoy it. I look forward to the day that I’ve added a tabletop cnc to selection of shop tools because it can add a certain depth to some of my projects. Having said that, there’s something to be said for doing the same work by hand and blood, sweat, and tears that can go into it. It’s a good product with a quality design, Carvey will definitely find traction in a market as some companies have with 3d printers before them.
Without a doubt, this is a great product for consumers. With the explosion of 3D printers, people are definitely wanting to move on to new mediums for their creations and giving them this tool to do it will definitely help. I actually thought about making one of these on my own in the past after getting my 3D printer. Essentially I was just going to use a Dremel and then 3D print which ever parts I needed. However, I don't really see the School of Drama needing one of these, we already have a CNC mill that can do anything this can do I'm sure.
The reason I really like the concept of desktop CNC mills and 3D printers is that it allows a semi affordable way for consumers to get a taste for what designing for these types of machines are like. A desktop mill is a lot less intimidating than a full size one, and it may allow people who have interest in crating things to do so on a smaller and more affordable scale. This may be able to carry over to the educational component of CMU Drama, no we may not need it to actually make things for any productions we run, but it may give students easier access to fussing around with CNC mills, therefor adding to the experience and education they get from the program. Just a thought.
This is a cute devise, but I don’t see much use of it in theater. It is rare that places (at least run of the mill shops) will not be working on such a small scale. Props would try to outsource anything that gets THAT precise. The only purpose I can think of for this in our world that would be really worth it is for the manufacturing of custom hardware or demos. Being able to cut out small metal parts would be cool for a custom project, but then again is it worth the time it takes to draft and cut that piece? That is a constant CNC question and sometimes the answer is yes, but so much of that, again, depends on scale. The starting price for the carver is really great, cheaper than any CNC machine I have seen come out recently. Its affordability should be appealing to small businesses that could profit from a carver, though I am trying to figure out who the perfect target audience members are.
It's always really interesting to look at what gets funded through Kickstarter, and gives a good look into people's priorities. I am wondering whether there is something that would be better printed on a 3D printer than it would be to router using Carvey, which is a rather adorable name? I'm impressed that we've managed to get technology to the point where we can actually build a working tiny CNC router.
Ignoring the product itself, which I think is cool but has been covered by many others already, I am really impressed with the company behind it, Inventables, marketing strategies. I first became aware of the company a few years ago when I discovered a marketing campaign online somewhere where they were giving away $50 gift cards for just visiting the site. I did so and walked away with $48 dollars in free merchandise, which was really cool. Before Carvey was released, they have been sending teaser emails and building hype for months, it is no wonder they met their goal within the first 2 hours, and it is a testament to a fantastic marketing team as much as to a great product.
Nice to read this article will be very helpful in the future, share more info with us. Good job!
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