I see my last post on this topic is over a year old. Here is an update. I did buy the large 1000mm version of the X-Carve and decided to use it as a carver after all. Perhaps I will turn it into a 3D printer some day but I have found uses for it as a carver. I spent 2.5 days on building a stand for it to sit on. After finding that getting lumber shipped to my house (only 3 miles away!) was going to be more expensive than the wood, I got disgusted and decided to see what materials I had in my garage and shop. To my surprise, the wood I already had was enough to build what I had been thinking about building so I set to it. I'm pretty sore from leaning over and having to work on it on the ground. It is too large to fit on any work bench I have. So it is finally together and my first project is to build the parts to make a dust collection system using a shop vac. This thing is now in my lab and I don't want wood dust all over the place. The X-Carve framework is modular. So when I originally ordered it, I didn't buy a router. They are now shipping a DeWalt trim router as the standard power cutter and the mounting plate that they have will fit it. But I studied what the alternatives other people were using and I decided that I liked a Makita trim router better so I bought one of those. Inventables didn't offer a way to mount it so I will be making one on my Sherline Mill. To make a long story short, I was going to need a dust collection system as well so I decided to design a system that addressed both problems at once. So my mill will be making mounting hardware for the carver and the carver will be cutting parts to make the dust shoe for itself. It's cool when machines are mutually supporting.
My latest purchase is a Robo R2 3D printer which I just started unpacking and setting up today. It is supposed to be pretty ready-to-use out of the box. There are a lot of pluses to this machine but price will be too much for many people. The print size is pretty large (203.2 x 203.2 x 254 mm) This one has a heated bed and an enclosure to control the temperature which is what is necessary for many types of plastics. The unit talks to control software running on Windows or a Mac via WiFi. And this unit can be used with a lot of different materials from different manufacturers. During my research, the cheapest 3D printer was only $200 but you had to buy filament from the manufacturer and it has to be PLA and, of course, it is more expensive than commodity filament. Their filament spools have an RFID tag which the printer reads in order to decide whether there is filament before it will print. If you try to use someone else's filament, the printer will say you have no filament and will refuse to print. The strategy is like the ink-jet strategy where they make their money on the repeat refills.