I was VERY happy with the bottom cut. It was able to do it without the sled tipping. On the top I did have to hold the sled down to keep it from tipping. One of the pluses of any vertical Maslow is the accessibility to get “inside the machine” when necessary too manually “help” the sled. Certainly a lot less with the Maslow4 then my earlier Maslows, but it’s still a plus in my mind.
I also cut some 3/4” thick foam close to the edge:
Can you comment about your configuration–any steps you took or didnt take in getting this far? ie did you solder ground encoder pins or anything else, make any changes to your operating system in re sleep, screensaver etc, AP mode, connect to your LAN or over usb?
The only thing I special was move the ferrite bead on the router power cord close to the router instead of the plug. I separate the Maslow power cord and router power cord while cutting. And they are plugged into separate outlets. Before I did all of that I did get one “15 mm error”.
Once I resigned myself to retract the belts at the end of every work session and extend at the beginning of a work session everything has worked fine. With my old Maslow I would leave it hang on the frame and raise the frame into my garage ceiling so it’s out of the way. With the Maslow4 I take it off the frame every time I’m done working with it. Yes, I am a little regretful I built a big frame. Up and down two ladders and 4 wing nuts every time gets old quick. I will eventually re-design with the ball pin concept.
What’s the max. size (x / y) of the workpiece you can cut with your frame setup?
What are the positions of the anchor bolts (x, y, and z in relation to the top surface of the workpiece)?
Has anybody tested the precision in the corners of a big workpiece (e.g. 4’ x 8’ sheet with belts parallel to the workpiece surface?
As I’d like to be able to cut a full 4’x8’ feet board of plywood with precision till the corner edges I’m on the lookout for some correct figures that work in reality to build my frame.
I haven’t checked the accuracy but I am comfortable working in the corners of a 4’ X 8’ sheet. My frame is large, 12’ wide X 10’ high. Most of the stuff I’m making right now is for set and prop pieces, not requiring very high precision. Once the show is up next month I will get a chance to check the accuracy.
Jcross, thank you. It helps :-).
I’m curious to hear from you more about accuracy in the sheet corners.
And do you have any info concerning the belt anchor height(s), please?
I can imagine that belts running paralle to the workpiece surface could deliver better precision than belts attached low on the frame and resulting in always changing angles when moving the mill device around. Could be that I’m wrong, but anyway.
Here’s my idea how to attach a few-flew (if any) mount for the anchor bolts with a simple construction. The height of the belt anchor needed for a certain milling process can be adjusted by e.g. several PVC tubes with different lenghts and a slot (lengthwise cutout). Such “spacers” can be clipped to the bolt without the need to shift the bolt do do it. And there’s no need for a bolt with a thread. Just an idea …
@Biber I considered mounting the belts at different heights as you described but then I read that the angle of the belt was considered in the software, so I mounted them all at the surface per @bar design. I would be concerned about flex with any raised mount. The height of the belts varies with the router height anyway so you will never be totally parallel. I think putting a skirt of some kind around the frame at the same height as the work material to support the sled would help accuracy in the corners. I’m not sure how accurate you need but I think any sufficiently large frame is going to have enough flex to impact the accuracy. Now if you are anchoring to a concrete floor maybe that’s the best idea.
@ronlawrence3 I saw that but wasn’t sure what would happen if these were all set to zero, assuming each belt was at it’s own mounting height based on the position on the router. I’m not sure how the software then compensates for router height. After breaking one belt due to the software thinking I was at -10” router height, I was hesitant to try. In any case the trig for calculating the belt length due to the angle is straight forward so I didn’t thing it would affect accuracy much. Just a hunch on my part, I don’t actually know how it’s handled in the code.
The way I understand the z config numbers (please correct me anyone…) they represent the height in z from the anchorpoints when the Z steppers are all the way down. So you would only set them to zero if all 4 of your anchors were at the same height as the corresponding arm when this is true.
Use this to check frame size vs safe work area (green).
White is area where errors may occur, but we’re not sure how bad it will be.
Red is the inaccessible area.
With a 8x12 frame, I was able to trace (during a dry run) an inch inside my 4x8 spoil board’s edges all the way around and it appeared to be straight even in the corners.
The way I understand the z config numbers (please correct me anyone…) they
represent the height in z from the anchorpoints when the Z steppers are all
the way down. So you would only set them to zero if all 4 of your anchors were
at the same height as the corresponding arm when this is true.
That is correct, it is also correct that the maslow takes this height (and the Z
position of the router) into account when computing the belt length.
Great work!
