Design for Adjustable Motor Chain Depth?

Hardware Frame
1

Howdy ALL:

I’m getting ahead of myself since I don’t have my Maslow yet (it’s coming) but as I’m already making some modifications to my frame to fit in my low ceiling shed, I thought I’d see what others have done to adjust the plane for thicker materials…

I’ve read some threads about stacking other sheets of ply behind work piece to compensate, and I’ve read others adjust motor brackets somehow…

Does anyone have pictures of what they’ve done to accomodate larger thicknesses as far as having an adjustable top beam?

Thanks

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Could you define “thicker materials?” I’m assuming you mean larger than 1" thick - is this true?

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Yes Possibly.

I had read that Bar said they haven’t really seen any appreciable inaccuracy cutting 1/4 1/2 3/4 ply, but if you wanted to say cut a family name into a 2" plank, etc, I’m guessing it would be necessary to adjust for that.

I don’t have any immediate plans, just that I’m going to be building my frame next week and it would save some time in the long run…

I’m planning to build the “default” frame shortened 5" for my ceiling.

Tahnks

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I’ve seen not much on adjustable motor mounts, but am in the same boat modifying my frame and adjustable motor mounts is a must for my frame V2.0.

What ever you do, make sure it is rock solid without any flex.

The UniStrut approach is the best I can remember that I in the forum:

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If I’m understanding what you want to do, I find it best to make a “sheet” out of the planks if you have enough of them, and they’re straight enough to do so. Then define home positon according to where you want the cuts on the planks. you will need to take note of measurements for location of cracks etc. you want to avoid relative to your project, to make sure its going to cut where you want it.

If you only have one plank, you will have to find what’s most feasible for you to create a skirt around the plank so the sled doesn’t tilt or tip on the edge of what you’re cutting. 6 inches around the perimeter of your cuts/plank is enough of a skirt. make sure there are no screws or clamps to get in the way of the sled or chains.

keep your cuts near the bottom of the overall cut area for thicker materials to avoid chain skip/jump if you don’t end up making adjustable mounts. The thickest material I’ve used was 2.25 with no issue.
Hope you have a big dust collector :wink:

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I am planning to use the unistrut p2484 bracket
http://www.unistrut.us/index.php?WP=cat_detail&P=P2484

and then have a piece of unistrut open side down across the top of this bracket
and the top of the legs (shortening them slightly from the stock legs) so that I
can loosen the bolts and slide the top beam in and out.

I’ve got all the pieces, I just haven’t got them together yet.

I posted some CAD drawings showing this in the 1000 post frame design topic.

David Lang

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Thanks for the tips. I hadn’t thought about constructing a “skirt” around if you’re doing a single plank. We’ll see, good to have options.

Zeke

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Thanks for the Unistrut idea. Simple and fairly cheap.

Zk

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Anyone came up with an adjustable motor mount which is not uni-strut. Shouldnt it be possible to 3D print one using ASA or carbon-fiber enhanced filament and print on 100% infill?

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if you are going to 3D print one that isn’t metal, you might as well just cut yourself one out of plywood… in the spirit of reprap, use the maslow to fix and make maslows.

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you want to move the entire top beam, not just the motor

it really doesn’t take much, you just need to make sure you stay clear of the
chains (so you don’t want your brackets to stick out in front of the top beam,
even when it’s fully back towards the frame)

David Lang

On Thu, 4 Mar 2021, Arnd via Maslow

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I had been pondering making one out of plywood but i am a bit afraid of having flex and that the cut wont be 100% accurate.

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you will have less flex from plywood than anything 3d printed

But the force here is pretty consistant and will mostly be the weight of the top
beam. Almost all the forces are on the top beam itself

take a look at the ‘sources of error’ topic, that gets in to all the things that
can cause error, the top beam mounting is a very minor issue.

David Lang

1 Like