Hey folks. It’s been a while. I’ve been running our charter business in the USVI. The other night, I emailed Dudley Dix about getting the DXF files for the Oppikat (discussed above) and he told me that they’ve recently added the Bigakat 12! This is basically the equivalent of a Hobie Wave that you can home build. It’s big enough for a small family to all go out together. It’s also strategically designed so that you can build one hull, remove the temporary frames to build the second hull. These hulls are ideally suited for making on a CNC machine. I’m still in the process of deciding/building my CNC machine, so I’m going to go the router template route. Here’s the link and some pics. I’m about to send him some $ via PayPal. I’m hoping to be one of the first build blogs/YouTube videos. Check out Midnight-Maker.com and YouTube.com/c/MidnightMaker for future developments. I’m going to call mine the pHauxbieCat!
Subscibed to you channel! This is great, can’t wait… 
Hi, I am a new member of this forum. I’m french with a bad english language level… but I want to share with your community !
I am a boat builder (for hobby and a little bit profesional yet).
I project seriously to buy a Maslow cnc but I doubt about the accuracy of the cnc cut.
I design my own boat to no have problem with copiright. I have built small sail and raw dinghies. I am building a clinker plywood canoe now (something like the sassafras of clc boat) .
I design with Rhino. I like Rhino because it lets me a lot of creative work and it can unfold my panel. It’s not very hard to design a small boat.!
Really, somebody think that Maslow CNC can cut precisely (1 mm) a panel ?
Thanks (and sorry for my english )
Welcome to our group. The Maslow is a kit and each build will have a slightly diffrent accuracy. The goal as I understand it is to get accuracy of 5mm, however the accuracy is variable depending on the location. The Maslow is most accurate towards the center of the CNC. There are many ways to use it. People here have used it to make boats. I’m told making up the differences is just part of boat building.
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Bienvenue dans notre groupe. Le Maslow est un kit et chaque construction aura une précision légèrement différente. Si j’ai bien compris, l’objectif est d’obtenir une précision de 5 mm. Toutefois, la précision varie en fonction de l’emplacement. Le Maslow est plus précis vers le centre de la CNC. Il y a plusieurs façons de l’utiliser. Les gens ici l’ont utilisé pour fabriquer des bateaux. On me dit que faire la différence n’est qu’une partie de la construction de bateaux.
J’espère que ça aide
Je vous remercie
En cours d’exécution via google traduction
I hope this helps
Thank you
Running this through google translate
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the goal is ~0.5mm
Was Dudley Dix willing to supply the DXF files to his bought plans? I own his Cape Cutter 19 plans and the mylar patterns to hand cut the plywood and until I discovered the MaslowCNC. Now thinking about approaching him for the DXFs so I could potentially use the Maslow (which I’ve yet to buy - waiting to see what happens with the metal kit).
Cheers.
That’s very cool! If you incorporate puzzle joints or scarf joints, that will allow you to cut shorter pieces, thereby staying closer to the center of the sweet spot. Welcome! Your English is WAY better than my French…
Yes, I believe he can provide DXF files for his plans, but I believe there is a surcharge. Check with him. He’s been very responsive to my inquiries in the past.
OK, I was affraid with 5 mm 
Ok, my goal is to make any nice puzzle joints too. I don’t want to make juste small pièces in the center of the “sweet spot” ! Maslow cnc is a large format cnc… I understand accuracy is lower in the corner of the panel…
- Is it realist to imagine make a 3D puzzle joint like that ?
- How many times approximaly to cut a panel (marine plywood 5 mm) like that ?
2 hours ? 20 hours ?
Thanks a lot to help me to understand what I can hope with this fantastic cnc 
Renaud
many people are getting around 5mm (a little better than 1/4") but we are aiming
for sub-mm. Getting your machine that accurate is a lot of work.
David Lang
This looks like a side view, please help me out.
The max feed-rate you can run will highly depend on your setup and the material.
- if your sheet is curved, no accurate Z
- ‘Chain alignment’ from sled to sprocket is a must
- no ‘chain guides’ on sled side (could disturb the math)
- check all measurements the calibration gives and ask how to change those if you feel like you trust yourself more.
Kind regards, Gero
Sorry, I am not very clear. The drawing above is the plankings (unfold) of a canoe. It’s an example of what I need to cut in a panel. I know that the machine is moving slowly on the panel. My question was whether such a cutting plan takes time to complete.
If the image represents the ply-sheet, a thickness of ?? 5 mm ?? can easy be done in 2-3 steps.
This is if the red lines in the pic represent the cuts.
I haven’t used my machine all that much, but my guess is that such a design with the long cuts like that would be ~5 hours to cut. I have a couple of questions. How thick would the material be? Are the red lines in the middle of each piece also being cut?
Anyone else want to guess?
Thanks for reply. The thickness is 5 mm okoumé plywood and the redline in the middle of each piece are not being to cut.
Our Maslow does a great job of producing symmetrical / repetitive curves (ie identical pieces).
We have been building interior boat frames, exterior panels, french curves, and puzzle joints with excellent results.
I try to stay away from the absolute corners and edges of the workspace for accuracy. If your cut sections are 6’ each, center them up on the 4x8 workspace. 4" all around and 12" triangles in the corners are my absolute no’s. Mostly because I get distracted in the shop after the Maslow starts running so I listen to it (listen for it) more than watch it. Chain guards will be my next add. Everyone’s setup is a little different. Practice will tell you your limits.
0.2" depth cuts performs consistently cutting marine ply. 5mm will cut in one pass as long as the panel is dead flat. 18mm in 4 passes.
From your sketch 6’ x 24 cuts x 12 inches per foot x 1 pass / 30" cut rate = just under an hour.
It seems to me after a few months of regular use, with no real scientific evidence, that the single flute straight bit “walks” less (at 0.2" depth passes) in the edges of the workspace than the fancier bits. The first pass usually works great, but something about the second and the third pass at the outer edges, the fancy bits want to walk more as the sled gets off kilter. Then the sled will follow the latest cut line. Us paying better attention would have saved a few pieces of wood.
My most complex DXF has about 25 nested pieces on it and takes about 4 hours (4 passes) to print all the pieces out of 3/4 material (18mm). Huge time saver for our process. I print the parts ahead of schedule so we are setting pieces while the ‘next’ is being cut.
I will post a new topic and a few pics to this forum with more of what works for us.
Hope the ‘late’ reply is helpful, perhaps to others cutting boat frames.
IMG_6231.HEIC (2.6 MB) IMG_5886.HEIC (1.7 MB) IMG_5921.HEIC (1.6 MB) IMG_5981.HEIC (1.4 MB) IMG_6050.HEIC (1.4 MB)
We do have:
- Wall mounted Maslow with 12’ top beam
- Counter weights (heavy chain) on the bungee cord with pulleys to keep better tension in corners. You can see chain between the workspace and the touchscreen in picture.
- Touchscreen XPS Dell, up cycled from online reseller. Highly recommend the touchscreen.
- Starboard sled slides nice
- Dust bucket top collector, which is wired to the router and shop vac outlet, all on and off with a single (3 way) switch on both sides of Maslow for safety.
Still to do:
- Upgraded gears for motor, one is starting to grind, have ordered but not yet installed.
- Chain guards, they do ‘pop’ every once in a while and have to be reset.
For anyone considering using the Maslow for Boat frames, or any other complex repetitive work, this has been the single best addition to our shop, ever. Thank you!
Chain guards help. Make sure your motors are properly aligned with your sled, too. See Chains constantly hanging up in gears.
your pictures are not displaying, can you try uploading them in a different
format?