Most people lack the manual dexterity to carve a work of art.  I would just end up skewering myself with the blade if I tried.  The Craftsman ComuCarve is for people like me.  Those who dream of greatness, without having the necessary skills to take them there.  Fortunately, we are born in an age of computers, where gadgets like this can do all the work.  What does the CompuCarve do?  It carves models out of wood that you create on your computer with a level of precision that you could only dream of.  Sure, you will need to have enough information to design what you want to carve, you just won’t have to have the woodworking skills to do the actual job.  It is standalone, kind of, you will need a computer to run the software, but you can load your project onto a memory stick, so you system doesn’t have to live in a dirty, dusty environment.

You might guess that something like the Craftsman CompuCarve is expensive, but when you consider that it can work its magic on wood, soft materials and some plastics, $1,800 does not seem like all that much.  It will let you do your thing on wood that is 14 1/2 inches wide and almost any length.  This kind of technology has been around for a while now and it is finally starting to get to prices that people will be able to afford.  There are a few accessories that really flesh this thing out.  I was particularly interested in the 3D scanning probe, which I assume would let people copy just about any object that they want to recreate.  The possibilities with something like this are endless.

Price: $1,800 (Available from Sears)

Source: DVICE