From what I understand, to utilize a full 4x8 sheet of plywood, I should have the motors 12 ft apart and about 30 inches above the material. I thought I could do that but it appears my garage door will prevent that from happening. So, with the standard frame, what should I expect my work area to be? On a side note, if I decide to raise up and out a few inches, what min and max forces should I look for to determine if there is enough improvement utilizing the spreadsheet to make it worth the effort?
if the sled is balanced correctly, you can cut to the top of your workpiece and
almost to the sides (within an inch or so), but only down to about 6" from the
bottom. If you add support for the sled you can go past that.
with a 10’ top beam you have less force available at the bottom corners, so you
have to go slower and it’s more critical that the bottom of the sled be slick so
that it doesn’t stick
going to a 12’ top beam makes it better, but it’s not a requirement.
David Lang
Thanks David. It sounds like the gain from the larger frame is speed more than cutting area. Having that 6 inches on the bottom would be nice for some things I am considering somewhere down the line but for all practical purposes, the full sheet is usable.
that 6" along the bottom requires a skirt (i.e. something to support the sled as
it goes off the bottom to keep it from tilting) and 10 vs 12 ft makes no
difference.
David Lang
So it sounds like the standard frame provides the capability. The cutting area is the full sheet of plywood with skirts. The larger frame provides better performance. Thanks for clearing that up.
Personally I have found that even using 1’ skirts around cutting area; the default Maslow frame does not provide adequate cut quality, to get usable parts from a full 4x8’ sheet, to build a 3D piece that is over 2’ in any dimension.
Bottom corners just have too much slack in the long chain. Top middle has too much tension in chains. I get a discrepancy of over 1/8" between X and Y axis which means pieces over 2’ do not fit together without a lot of post processing.
Tried to dial in all settings for over two years, using specs provided, and still can’t get usable cut parts for the full 4x8’ board. I currently get usable results by reducing cut area to 6" below top and 12" from each side. So 3.5’ x 6’ is my max. Also have to orient cut parts, so that they are similarly aligned when cut, to the way they are assembled, so that any X/Y drift occurs proportionally in both axis, and the parts fit together.
Already bought upgrade parts for the 12’ beam but have not completed it. Hoping it will get me a full sheet usable performance. Love the Maslow for what it can do.
1 Like
it’s important to keep in mind that a lot depends on the accuracy you need.
There are a lot of cases where a 1/8" error would be perfectly acceptable (as
well as a lot where it’s utterly useless)
when you put on the 12’ top beam, move it a bit higher to reduce the tension in
the top center.
1 Like