I will first admit that I haven’t done an exhaustive search on this topic. I am new to CNC and looking to buy/build something in my $500-$1000 price range. I’ve looked through a number of projects that folks have created and some videos of it in operation. From what I’ve seen the Maslow is very accurate but I am curious if anyone has experience with other CNC machines that they could give me an idea of the difference in precision. I have to think that the Maslow can’t be as precise with the way it operates compared to other types of mills, but given my lack of familiarity I am completely open to feedback and guidance.
I can’t answer your question directly, but I am extraordinarily confident that this is the only solution in the $500 to $1000 that can cut from a 4x8 sheet of plywood. The question I would ask you is what are you planning on doing with the CNC? From there we can help you figure out if this suits your need or not.
A Chinese desktop cnc, work area smaller than 600mm x 400mm like mine, cuts a precision of 0.1mm after 6 years without maintenance, costs ~ $1700 without any tools, bits or clamps, so can reach $2000 easy.
A Maslow CNC bare kit with Z-axis, work area ~ 2440mm x ~1220mm is $410. Add a router, + how much you want to put into the frame, + triangular kit (recommended), + cheap bits for testing, + good bits for the artwork, to get the total. Precision near the centre, I could measure, 0.1mm.
Plenty of new calculation went into the software recently improving the top/middle and the 2 down corners.
0.5 mm over the total sheet is achievable soon, I guess. Current results depend highly on how good you get your machine dialled in.
To start, my intention is to use for MDF and plywood to build some of my home projects (furniture, decorations, etc) and bluetooth speakers that I’m building for family and friends. I’m not looking to build anything very large or complex to start, but I’m sure I will get there as I learn more. I read through the topic that you linked and that really helps. Thanks!
I think that’s a fairly good use case for Maslow… But honestly, I’m blown away by some things people have done. If you aren’t in a rush to create something or trying to mass produce something (though you could use Maslow to make templates for manual mass production), Maslow will do most anything the higher end machines can do… it’s just slow.
Welcome to our group. Size matters, at least when you want to do furniture. The Maslow is the best value I’ve seen in CNC. It is the best in class for home projects, the size, cost, learning curve. I have a frined that is in to 3D printing and Quad Copters who is wanting a desktop CNC. He saw the $200ish “chinabot” ( ~6 inches by 6 inches) cnc and assumed it’s all the same . I have a Shapeoko 3.
You could compare with the larger Shapeoko. Your going to be out a lot more money and have to work with a smaller size. Having said that it’s probably much more accurate. It’s more mature and based on proven technology.
You should check this out -
My take on the Maslow is it’s ~$600 to get up and running. That can’t be beat. If your looking to do smaller projects and have the budget get a XXL Shapeoko. We use makercam.com for stuff here - it was created by Ed Ford one of the guys at Shapeoko. I’d say we have a great respect for Ed.
He designed the original SO (a Kickstarter project) using Bart Dring’s OpenRail , then the SO2, and the SO3. He went from a wage slave with a part time project in his garage, to full time at Inventables (whose current X-Carve is obviously a Shapeoko derivative) to Carbide3D (cooincidentally a couple blocks from where I worked in Torrance) and the SO3. While he hasn’t turned his project into owning a big company yet (with a mythical Mexican Villa and private jet, and real TV stardom) like Brook Drumm he’s on his way.