Considering a maslow - space question

No Judgement
1

hello, I’m getting ready to build a boat or two (or 4) and it seems like maslow would be a great way to cut the frames. And the investment is pretty reasonable to get a 4x8 cutting surface.

My question is this: my garage is not tall and I want to cut full 4x8 sheets. So, I think this means:

  • 1 foot below the sheet
  • 4 for the sheet
  • 3+ feet above the sheet and 12’ span to get the optimum full range.

So that means I need 8’ ceilings - which I don’t have, especially with a 12’ span.

What is the largest angle I can put the sled at before friction becomes a problem?

at 30 degrees it comes down to 7’
at 45 degrees it comes down to just over 6’

And as an alternative… If I say I’m just going to use half sheets can I bring it down to 24" over the sheet and maybe an 8 foot span?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

PS: the boats are:
http://gentrycustomboats.com/Whitehallpage.html
http://gentrycustomboats.com/RUTHpage.html

and maybe a couple of kayaks…

1 Like
2

hello, I’m getting ready to build a boat or two (or 4) and it seems like maslow would be a great way to cut the frames. And the investment is pretty reasonable to get a 4x8 cutting surface.

My question is this: my garage is not tall and I want to cut full 4x8 sheets. So, I think this means:

  • 1 foot below the sheet

you can trim this down to ~9" (even more if you don’t make the sled round)

  • 4 for the sheet
  • 3+ feet above the sheet and 12’ span to get the optimum full range.

3+ ft is very generous, 2" is probably doing very well

play around with the spreadsheet at

So that means I need 8’ ceilings - which I don’t have, especially with a 12’ span.

What is the largest angle I can put the sled at before friction becomes a problem?

15 degrees is already pushing it, we think that closer to vertical is better.
When designing the new frame, Bar built one with a 20 degree angle
(misunderstanding my directions) and it didn’t work.

And as an alternative… If I say I’m just going to use half sheets can I bring it down to 24" over the sheet and maybe an 8 foot span?

see the spreadsheet for the forces of various dimensions.

David Lang

2 Likes
3

You can also probably get away with a little less than a foot below the sheet. You, of course, need at least half of your sled diameter so your sled reaches the bottom of the sheet before it hits the ground.

2 Likes