I’d like to be able to use the maslow 4 as a tabletop router to round over edges and cut templates. I don’t really want to buy and store a second router and this seemed like a fun project to build with the maslow.
I was thinking that you could just invert the unit and a ring could support the lip of the sled. The cut out is to accommodate whatever dust collection any other maslow units have.
That should work, and you should be able to manipulate the Z axis without an
issue.
One thing you don’t have with that is anything to rest your workpiece against.
It’s dangerous to just have a free bit spinning and move your workpiece to it.
What you should look at doing is making a peg that you can put into one of the
holes on the bottom of the sled so that you can put your workpiece solidly
against that and then pivot it into the bit.
That’s an interesting idea. As David mentioned, I really like that you could easily manipulate the Z axis, so you effectively get a router lift at the same time (a decent router lift is +$200).
Do you plan on using only the sled as the router tabletop? If so, I would actually recommend using a larger tabletop that the sled can slide into. If you only use the sled, you won’t have a fence, which is very useful while routing, you’ll have a pretty small work area, and I’d also be worried about stability.
Instead of a full fence, you could just add a peg, as David mentioned, and that’s very helpful, but a full fence is often orders of magnitude better (better control, more accurate measurements, can attach additional accessories like stop blocks and featherboards). With a table, you could just add some supports under the tabletop for the sled to slide into (see janky illustration below). Just make sure that it locks in there very well so that it won’t move while routing. Alternatively, depending on the thickness of the tabletop, you could have a large cutout in the tabletop with a section routed out for the M4 sled to drop into (added benefit is that the M4 can easily make this cut out for you). This would likely be the sturdiest solution.
