While doing calibration in the vertical orientation about 2/3 through the lower left belt was pulling tight for a measurement and snapped about two feet from the anchor point. This was done on Monday before I knew about the new firmware update for calibration. Is there any way to remove the damaged belt from the spool without damaging it to replace the belt?
Hi Thevian, sorry to hear about that.
Can you clarify, dod the belt actually got torn into two pieces? Cause it feels like those belts would sustain like a couple hundred kgs of force.
Could you maybe share a picture of it?
If it snapped close to the anchor point, it sounds like it would make more sense to snip that end clean and redo the anchor rather than disassemble an arm and replace the whole belt. There is a lot of excess belt on the spool, even for a 8’x12’ frame.
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I had a belt get caught in the gears and damaged near the end. I removed the two piece belt end, cut 22 inches off the belt with a pair of tinsnips, and reattached the belt end. It’s working fine on mt 8ft x 12ft frame.
Yea, I would like to see a picture of a snapped belt. Had it sustained damage prior to snapping?
wow, crazy. What would bug me is if that belt was tensioned enough to snap then I wonder how much stress/fatigue the other belts have now.
That is an amazingly clean break. All of the steel reinforcement snapped at almost exactly the same point. I would guess, without any additional information, that the belt had been damaged at that spot somehow.
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Thanks, wow, it definitely looks like the belt was damaged at some point.
@Carson_Barry made a great suggestion. You should be able to get away with the belt 2 ft shorter for now. And then I think we should be able to set you up with a replacement belt, right @bar ?
During assembly I wrapped the belt from the original packaging on to the spool. I did not notice any sort of damage to the belts while I was wrapping them. Could have over looked it being so close to the end.
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I agree with this idea as a way to keep moving, but also shoot an email to Anna@maslowcnc.com and we’ll get you a replacement in the mail right away.
I’m curious to know more about what was going on when it broke. Did it seem excessively tight? I’ve broken one before but they are rated for 250 pounds so it’s normally obvious when they are under a lot more strain than normal
Awesome! I will give it a go later today. It did not seem like it was pulling any harder than it had for all of the previous measurements. I had been minding the bottom two belts to keep them from catching on the frame as it was pulling tight and it didn’t seem out of the ordinary when it pulled tight and snapped.
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Well @bar switched to yesterdays firmware release, index and yaml(saved old one) to recalibrate and belt snapped on top right. Ive never had issues there🤦‍♂️
Is the Belt Snapping? or just coming out from the Spool? did you Super Glue them in place? I feel like this looks more like its coming out from the spindle then Snapping. That’s a Clean end cut. If it snapped you would have strands of metal, and rough edges showing Nothing snaps that clean especially twice! It looks like you don’t have it Glued into the Spool and its coming out from there. What’s the Dimension of your Anchor points?
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You are most hopefully right! Will check when I get back this afternoon. It was at .86 fitness on the 7 x 7, had started the 9 x 9 grid and was in the left most bottom position when it happened (so makes perfect sense).
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So the Belts are 14ft. Your anchors are over 14ft. So when the belts are folded over for the anchor points you lose 2inch each. Plus whats ever on the spindle. You are spinning these to the point that there are no wraps on the spindle to help keep the tension around the whole thing all tension is only on those 3 little posts and some glue. Bring your anchors closer
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Good point. This is making me rethink my Maximized Maslow a bit. I wonder how far one can unwind the spool before the forces on the belt get too large.
John Wolter wrote:
I wonder how far one can unwind the spool before the forces on the belt get too large.
If the motors run to the point that the belt starts to retract, it’s clearly too
far. In fact, if you move past the point where the belt is tangent to the spool
it’s too far.
I don’t know if you need to have a full wrap or not. That’s a good question.
David Lang
I would say if the belt goes past the halfway mark on the spindle then tou are putting the tension on the beltt, not the spool
I snapped a belt today. My fault, I told the Z axis to move 10 inches (thought I was in mm) realized before the motors stalled and cooked. Yes, you can stall the step motors and they will get really hot if you keep going. I previously stalled them going down and boy did they get hot! In an attempt to stop that from happening again, I unplugged the motors while I patiently waited for it to finish it’s 10” up move. When it finally “stopped” I re-zeroed the Z axis. I think the Maslow was trying to compensate for the sled at 10” so when I went to move it snapped.
Is there a way to set soft limits on the Z axis? Or change the step increment automatically when you change the units. Or convert the US to the metric system. Whatever is easiest 
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