Has anyone made their Maslow work on work area larger than 4’x8’? My ideal work area size is 6’-6" wide by 17’ long, but anything larger than 4’x8’ might work for me.
Love to hear from anyone who has made their setup larger than 4’x8’.
Thank you in advance! Happy July 4th!!!
My frame is 14 feet by 10. I have driven the Maslow around on it bigger than 4 by 8 probably 10 by six and it seemed ok. You should play with dlangs frame calculator bigger frames give you better accuracy in the middle up to a point. Near the edges arms start bumping into the supports and the math doesn’t triangulate as well and tension goes up. http://lang.hm/maslow/maslow4_frame.html
The practical limits on frame size are that the belts have to reach all the way from your farthest corner across the cutting area. You can add belt extensions as 1 m or so sticks that attach between the anchors and the belt ends. And then add that distance in the extension entry in the config (search for this in the forums) The software doesn’t currently understand a frame bigger than . 5 m by 5 m not sure if it is the same limit with extensions. I think with extensions you could probably make a 5 m by like 3 meter frame.
I think 6 feet tall feels workable but 17might be tricky. I have had some luck using groups of big tent stakes as anchors you could play some using thatj. Just stay under the 5 m limit
Does the 5m software limit on frames apply when you are using extensions?
Do extensions all have to be identical lengths?
Where does one enter belt extensions in the config? Is it belt end extension? Ok, found it in the forums,
"Default Belt end is the black bit at the end of each belt (30mm)
You will need to change the belt End Extension from
beltEndExtension: 30.000000
to the distance from your anchor point to where the belt goes into the belt end. Mine is almost exactly 1Metre, yours will be around 800mm
In my experience yes. I tried shortening one by only 50mm and could not get it to pass Find Anchors.
Don’t know about the 5m limit, if it is still a problem we can fix it.
If you don’t change belt end extension and you are still under the limits, the Maslow does not care. It works anyway.
I am currently trying a 16.3 foot by 11.3 foot frame area with 1096 mm extensions. 1.22 is doing a good job of figuring it out. fun.
The extensions would limit me to cutting 7ft by 11 foot EDIT< NOPE 5 by 11. >
If this works I would request expanding the 5m area.
Ok so I think I am pushing the possiblitlies even with extensions.
BTW I really like the work area limit function that is very useful.
I have laid out a 16.3 by 11.3 frame with roughly 1 meter belt extensions. This gives a working area of 5 feet by 11 feet. You could probably tweak it to get 6 feet wide. The belts even with extensions have to span the diagonal distance of the work area which in this case is about 12 to 13 feet. The belts are only 14 feet long total and you never want to run all the way out. You could stretch it a bit but even with a frame software limit of 6m I don’t think you could get much bigger with the current belt and spool capacity.
On the very exciting front 1.22 figured out that wacky situation and is moving around nicely. I don’t know what kind of accuracy you would have at the ends of that but it is fun. I suppose a bigger software limit would allow longer extensions which would allow better accuracy on large cuts.
I am using wire loops as extensions and lawn anchors which I will document on the frame thread. It looks like Ian ab is working on printing his own spools which would allow even larger work area but it doesn’t feel very practical past this for me without rebuilding the entire maslow.
On the plus side this might be really good accuracy on the center 4 by 8 space. I would want to clean up the clips that I am using between the belt ends and the wire loops.
Maslow-serial(38).log (6.5 KB)
I could be wrong, but I believe one of the things with extensions is currently the software assumes the extensions stay at the same height as the points they attach too (for the height triangulations). Extremely large work areas might mean the practical difference is minimal compared to any kind of stretch in the system though 
Yeah, these are not optimized for height but I think it would be small effects. I suppose one could use a laser leve in the centerl and spacers on the anchor pins to get some idea of where the plane is and still be fast for setting up. With the wire loops being so light they pulled pretty flat under tension
Dave wrote:
I could be wrong, but I believe one of the things with extensions is currently
the software assumes the extensions stay at the same height as the points they
attach too (for the height triangulations). Extremely large work areas might
mean the practical difference is minimal compared to any kind of stretch in
the system though
Yes, the current option is assuing that these are not flexible (just like the
stock 30mm plastic ends)
but if you put them all at the height of the arms, the error from the router
moving up and down will unlikely to be a problem
play around with the frame size calculator
http://lang.hm/maslow/maslow4_frame.html
one problem with very wide frames is that they get very short working area in
the middle, so you may need more height than you expect (or need to not go as
long and reposition your work and do things in multiple cuts)
David Lang
