C-Beam Axis with Metal Maslow Sled

I was thinking the same thing. Thanks for the DXF. I will keep an eye on tipping. If necessary I can swap out the threaded spacers.

Interesting!
We are a couple of students who just built the Maslow. We also have a Metal Maslow sled. After the first round of cuts, we feel the need to upgrade the Z-axis. No stability issues with that C-beam?
Where did you buy the beam?

No, I don’t see any stability issues so far. I purchased the C-Beam on alibaba. It took about 4 weeks to get here. And then I had to get a larger gantry plate because the one that came with it originally was not going to work.

If I had to do it again, particularly if I owned a Metal Maslow sled already, I would get MetalMaslow’s z-axis setup it uses slides and is more robust than the c-beam design.

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China stuff with long delivery, but zero flex on an 8mm acrylic sled with 90° aluminium angles.
image

Edit: I’m moving a 500W (will upgrade to 800W air cooled) spindle on that. Not any router.

Nice! I would love to see some more pictures of your setup!

I spoke to Khahn behind Metalmaslow. He said that the C-beam is just as strong as the Metalmaslow Z-axis.

This is the supplier I ordered the beam from.

Then I bought this gantry plate

And I replaced all of the rollers with bigger ones as well. And finally you would need a router clamp from metal Maslow.

Maybe someone at alibaba has a premade xl c-beam, that would help a lot.

Thanks! We’ve got a pretty good metal machineshop, so I think we can fabricate the clamp and the plate if needed.

Cool.

My understanding is don’t skimp on upgrading the rollers and bearings. The primary reason to switch to the xl is to get larger and more rollers and bearings to handle the torque

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I cut out a wood base for the sled. I ended up using 3/4 melamine chip board because I had a leftover shelf piece that was nearly the exact right size. It is probably too tall by 50% and probably adds more weight than is needed. 1/2 would probably have been better. I still have the model, so I can recut new pieces relatively easily in the future.


Now I need an acrylic window to really cut down on the sawdust.

I think I am also going to move to a metal bar for my motor spacing. It looks like my motors moved about 5 mm closer together then when I last checked them. This could be caused by seasonal changes or because my green wood wasn’t fully dry. 5, is a sizable change. I would like to avoid doing the holey calibration as much as possible. It seems like every time I do it, I get one of the measurements wrong and spend 30 minutes tracking it down.

One downside to the 60 tooth sprocket on the z-axis, the motor has a bit of slop. My best guess is that with the 3x sprocket setup with an 8mm lead screw that this results in about .2mm of slop.

Also, does anyone else giggle a bit when using their maslow? It never ceases to amaze me that this silly looking contraption works as well as it does.

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I’m following this with interest because I am still using the original ridgid-base-with-Zdrive setup that came with the original Maslow plan…and it’s starting to really show it’s age.
how do you plan on attaching the C-beam to the sled?
The concern I have is how to brace it in the sideways and backwards direction so it doesn’t flex.
I can’t find nice pre-made side brackets…
I’m interested in how you do it here.

thanks!
-M

There are 4 laser cut holes for 5mm screws to secure it to the sled. It doesn’t need additional bracing. The aluminum is only 8" long, hard to get much flex out of something so short.

Yeah, it may be confusing if you only tuned in to see the white melamine board. My actual sled looks like this post above.

The black part is Metal Maslow’s 1/4 inch steel sled. I highly recommend it. The accuracy of the holes solves a lot of issues and this is something that should last forever (as opposed to a wooden sled).

The white melamine I cut above is mounted under this sled as a low friction skid surface that rides across the work surface.

I’ve ordered a bit oversized aluminium angles because i wanted the z-motor down to keep the centre of gravity on Z low. Just needed to drill holes for the screws in the t-slots. Almost no flex, however a 500W spindle is much lighter than a router. The 8mm acrylic dust protector for the tooth-belt provides additional support. post

I forgot to mention if you seal up the top 4" hole with clear plexiglass then you will almost dead head the vacuum and if strong enough will stick the sled on the wasteboard.

the solution is to let air in through more air channels maybe around 12 oclock so the flow is straight to the bottom.

That was my thought as well.

Hi,

did you already test this z-axis setup?

Oh yeah, this is what I have been using for a few weeks. I cut a lot of simple things, nothing all that fancy yet. But it works perfectly. As I said, much faster in moving, with a little trade off on about .2mm of backlash in the motor.

I also made and attached this dust window that helped a TON. Little if any sawdust comes out now for normal cuts.

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just to be clear the backlash is in the original z motor and 3x gearing.
the metal maslow kits have a faster more expensive z motor that doesn’t’ require the 3x gear and thus doesn’t’ have back lash issues.

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The stock maslow Z axis has bad backlash problems, that’s why we put a bungee
over the top, it holds the router against one side of the threaded rod to
eliminate the backlash, you could do the same thing with a C-beam setup.

David Lang

the back lash is from the old slow z axis motor and 60t to 20t gearing, which connects to the cbeam lead screw.

The cbeam already has a anti backlash nut on the lead screw so a bungee would not help.