Starting a business with CNC machining comes with a lot of initial decision-making, and one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is what equipment you’re going to be working with.
X-Carve CNC machines are designed for professional quality results in your home workshop, making them ideal for making CNC projects to sell online.
From impressively designed software to some extremely useful features that make for precise and fast results, it makes sense that there would be a lot of reasons to start using an X-Carve to make money.
In this article, we’re going to see why the X-Carve machines are ideal for business, as well as a few X-Carve CNC projects that sell well (and a few of my personal favorites). So if you’re in the market for a new CNC machine, you’ll soon see why the X-Carve experience might just be the one for you.
Best X-Carve Projects That Sell Well: Full Round-Up
Kitchen X-Carve Projects
The kitchen is a place that needs to be practical but also part of the home, so it makes sense that a lot of people look to unique and cool designs for kitchen tools and decorations that make add to the home beautifully without spending too much.
Sushi Boards
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Jamie Guan
- Price: Free
Making cutting boards and other kitchen tools with your X-Carve will sell quite well online, and make for some good personal projects too. Things that many people may not even consider like this practical sushi dish make for excellent selling in your marketplace as the concept is rarely thought of.
With separate grooves for wasabi, soy sauce, and ginger, it’s a great X-Carve project to market to sushi lovers like me. Anyone else getting hungry?
Cheese Boards
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Johnny Brooke
- Price: Free
Another excellent serving choice is this cheese board with separate compartments for nuts, fruit, or crackers. As well as being a nice addition to your own kitchen, the classy design and smooth surface make it a great product to add to your online store or add to any cutting boards you may already own.
Bread Knife
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Pat Lap
- Price: Free
But it’s not all serving platters. This X-Carve project for a bow bread knife is a clean and safe way to chop your baguettes in style. While it takes a little more engineering, you can find detailed instructions for putting it all together here.
Home DĂ©cor X-Carve Ideas
Of course, the home doesn’t end at the kitchen. There are plenty of X-Carve projects for home décor that also make excellent additions to your own home, but marketable products to sell online for others’ homes too.
Bathroom Fixtures
- Download Example: Inventables
- Designer: Various
- Price: Variable
Useful things for the bathroom include this toothbrush stand, this shaving stand, and this soap dish. All of these are easy to make and customizable either in basic design or post-cut engraving. Take it from a guy who keeps his toothbrush in a tumbler, I’d happily buy a homemade toothbrush stand that looks as nice as this one.
Lamp Shades
- Download Example: Inventables
- Designer: Various
- Price: Variable
With an X-Carve, lamp shades and shapes of all different sizes and styles are a breeze to make. Simple lamps like the hanging shade are easy to make with any leftover materials you have, while more complex and attractive shapes like this silhouette lamp are unique and eye-catching.
My personal favorites are this Lepus constellation lamp and this trippy wall lamp. Top of my list, though, is this red stone lamp perfect for any Minecraft fan.
Complex DĂ©cor
- Download Example: Inventables
- Designer: Various
- Price: Variable
If you’re looking to make X-Carve lamps to sell, polishing your skills with the more intricate designs will help your online store get more views.
We could go on about different kinds of home décor you can make and sell with your X-Carve like clocks, coat hangers, and organizers, but if you don’t mind tackling bigger projects for bigger profits, you might want to try your hand at making furniture.
X-Carve Furniture Plans
- Download Example: Inventables
- Designer: Various
- Price: Variable
Making CNC furniture is as challenging as it is rewarding, and the precision of the X-Carve helps make your creations more reliable and stable. Custom-made furniture is all the rage for homeowners, and is a great market if you have a penchant for large-scale carpentry.
End tables, stools, and chairs are all great starting points, and can be perfected and even customized with enough time and practice. More niche projects like bed trays and kitchen hutches are excellent X-Carve projects to sell because they’re rather expensive for what they are if bought from a traditional store.
Making and selling your own furniture will help you cut costs and sell for cheaper than most stores will, bringing customers to your doorstep and growing your market further. With customization through different shapes, etchings, and engravings, you’ll find making furniture to be a highly rewarding venture in every sense.
If you are planning on making furniture with your X-Carve, you’ll need to make extra sure that the pieces interlock correctly and are all the right size. Stability is doubly important for furniture, as a lack of reliability can lead to disasters, even lawsuits. So measure, remeasure, and prototype your creations before you sell!
Signs to Make With X-Carve
- Download Example: Inventables
- Designer: Various
- Price: Variable
Making signs is a great way to either start your CNC business or expand it. With the accuracy and dimensions of the X-Carve, especially with the extra size of the X-Carve Pro, high-quality signs are great to make and sell.
Whether it’s personalized signs for a home or event, or advertising signage for businesses like cafĂ©s and barber shops, making signs with a CNC router has a lot of different avenues to explore and options to expand.
Making signs to sell with your X-Carve is a great way to make money, as they’re easily customizable and can be made to suit your customers. Making a name for yourself in personalized designs makes you stand out, and the signs being hung publicly makes for some great free advertising if your customers are comfortable with you signing your work.
You can make signs for specific places, homes, and businesses, or even shake things up with LED displays for home décor. However you want to do it, selling signs made with your X-Carve is a good way to go.
Using X-Carve to Make Toys
- Download Example: Inventables
- Designer: Various
- Price: Variable
Just because you’re working with heavy equipment and even looking to sell, that doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had.
Toys, games, and gaming accessories are great to make with your X-Carve, and naturally, they’re fun to create and play with too.
Traditional games like Chinese checkers, cute chess boards, and even Connect 4 make for funky and attractive X-Carve projects.
If you have young children (or are looking to sell to those who do) there are a lot of educational and fun toys for youngsters you can make with your X-Carve so they can learn while they play. The Activity Bot and number puzzle are great toys for early learning and motor skill development, while rattles and pull-toys are great homemade toys to make and sell!
Do note that if you’re making toys for small children, it’s especially important to sand and smooth your projects when they’re done so they’re safe for small children. No one is going to want to buy or give their kids toys that give splinters or, even worse, break off with small pieces they could choke on.
It’s not just little ones who get to have fun, though. With your X-Carve, you can make a corn hole target box for drinking games, penny hockey, and even 2-player pinball! Gamers of the PC variety may also like this laptop stand for added comfort and visibility, not to mention better posture.
Needless to say, there are a lot of X-Carve projects for fun and games that really stand out whether in your den or in your store.
Fast Projects for Your X-Carve
If you’re looking for X-Carve projects to sell, and plan on selling a lot, then you’re going to want to focus on projects with high turnover rates for quick stocking and restocking of popular items. Here are a few good examples of X-Carve projects you can make in no time at all.
Under 15 Minutes
Matching speed and precision, the X-Carve is great for small projects that you can stock up on in no time.
Swiss Army Keychains
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Nicholas Zastrow
- Price: Free
These Swiss army-style keychains are quick and cool little projects that take very little materials or time and will sell well on an online marketplace. By offering personalized touches for your customers, you could soon see these become popular sellers in no time.
Charms
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Chad Ruble
- Price: Free
Small rings are also easy and speedy to make. This bracelet is a good example, but it is just an example. Smaller jewelry pieces like these bracelets or this butterfly friendship charm are cute, fun, and marketable.
Under 1 Hour
If you’ve got more time to restock, or want to focus on slightly bigger projects, there are also some things you can make with an X-Carve in one hour or less.
Business Sign
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Kevin Cleary Jr.
- Price: $5.99
This generic but still nice coffee shop sign is one such project, and is easily marketable to cafés looking for homemade signs.
Cherry Clock
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: James Wegner
- Price: Free
There’s also the base for this cherry clock. While building the actual clock will take longer, you can mass-produce the face for future construction down the line, saving time should orders exceed expectations.
Wood Lego
- Download: Inventables
- Designer: Garrett
- Price: $8.86
For something more fun and versatile, wooden Lego is a great way to exercise some creativity, and you can sell them as sets for specific builds, or as mix-and-match sets for imaginative customers who want to let their creativity run wild!
X-Carve vs X-Carve Pro: What’s the Difference?
The X-Carve and X-Carve Pro are professional-grade CNC routers that are easy to learn and ideal for anyone looking to make money with a CNC router. The two distinct models have key differences that will affect your future creations and earning potential.
Basically speaking, the X-Carve Pro CNC machine has a larger cutting area and more intuitive controls than the standard model. This is ideal for both big projects as well as added precision and user-friendliness.
The precision of the X-Carve Pro is also due to its enhanced stability, decreasing the chance of faults or errors while carving. This is especially important for making CNC projects to sell on sources like the Facebook Marketplace, no one wants to buy shoddy goods after all.
But don’t worry, with just a few test runs and a little practice, you’ll be up and selling in no time.
All in all, you can still create some pretty cool stuff with a standard X-Carve, but if you’re looking to make money with your creations, the enhanced reliability, precision, and size of the X-Carve Pro will prove to be a valuable asset to many businesses.
Easel Software
Using recommended software Easel, you can design, carve, and create 3D simulations of your CNC designs before you even start cutting. Easel also works as a community board, allowing you to upload your creations as well as browse and download others’ designs.
This is a great tool for anyone looking for inspiration, notes, or just cool designs to try out.
Easel is also compatible with a host of CNC machines, so even if you don’t go for an X-Carve, it’s still worth checking out.
With all of what the X-Carve CNC machines can do in mind, let’s take a look at some of the coolest projects around. Whether you want to use these X-Carve projects to sell, make as a hobbyist, or just looking for inspiration, there’s a lot to get excited about!
What can you make with the X-Carve?
You can make just about anything with an X-Carve that you can make with a standard CNC router. The X-Carve’s particular precision and software, however, make it ideal for professional-quality results perfect for furniture, signs, and home décor.
What materials can you cut with X-Carve?
Both the X-Carve and X-Carve Pro can carve plastics like acrylic and ABS, as well as softwood, hardwood, and plywood.
Both can also carve soft metals like brass and aluminum, though you will need the right lubrication, settings, and patience to do so safely and accurately.
Can you make money with X-Carve?
Yes. X-Carve projects are great for making money, and the improved precision and speed of the aptly-named X-Carve Pro make for a faster turnover of reliable products to sell online.
Can the X-Carve do 3D carving?
Yes. As the name suggests, the X-Carve CNC machines can do 3D carving as well as standard subtractive manufacturing for a wide variety of projects.
What programs run on X-Carve?
While the Easel software is recommended for use with an X-Carve as well as plenty of other CNC equipment. It’s a multi-purpose design and cutting software that is perfect for use with machines like the X-Carve.
However, you will need to make sure your hardware has a USB port, as that’s the only way to communicate your designs to the machine.
Is the X-Carve worth it?
The X-Carve is considered a well worth it machine for any enthusiast looking to make some high-quality CNC projects. Though X-Carve is good value for money, the X-Carve pro may be a little too pricey for simple hobbyists, and will only be worth the price if you’re looking to sell what you make.
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