So this project has been half designed for over 6 months but pesky work got in the way. Finally had some time this weekend to finish up the design and start cutting on the Maslow. As the design matures I will be more than happy to share the design with everyone.
The wife wanted a design which could fold up to save a bit of space so I came up with this design.
I’ll keep updating this post as more progress is made. Happy to be back building!
So far I know I need to add End caps and Spacers for the main rotation rod. Also going to cut 2 links to link the 1/2" and 1" dowels together to strengthen the 1/2" dowel on the ends. Ideally the 1/2" dowel will not extend the entire width.
Utilizing a router and a round over bit cleans up the attachment tabs easily and clearly as an FYI to anyone else out there.
Nice! Pre-M4, I tried to make a folding one (have twin 1.5 yr olds, so saving space is a great benefit). But, I wasn’t happy with the overall strength. I was working with some pine rather than plywood though.
Yeah, I would think so. I just finished a kitchen helper a couple weeks ago. I ended up doing 3/4" MDF. M4 cut it out beautifully. Though I learned the importance of sealing MDF before trying to paint. The cut sides of MDF just absorb the paint like a sponge it turns out.
Updated the platform supports to be a bit more beefy and have a bit more ‘locking’ to ensure the legs don’t open up when the little guy is on the step ladder.
Here’s the updated support. Just wanted to shout out to @bar just how flat the cut is as all edges of this piece were cut with no factory cut edge and its dead flat. When its as flat as my kitchen’s quartz countertop I’m colored impressed.
Also updated the design to have a more robust locking rod support by ending the locking rod across the entire length as well as an additional support part
Dry fit is complete with some additional changes to the design.
Changes
Just to note that I have moved extended the rotating arms outwards from the original design. This is mainly because my little one is HUGE at 99% so YMMV but it seems to work well so far. Here’s the upper arms in their original as designed position. Arrows denote where they were moved to in order to make the upper area for the child ~ 3" wider than originally designed.
The lower step which is fixed sets the width of the angled legs. However, it appears that when this would be glued there isn’t enough clearance for the platform for freely swing. In the design I added clearance on each side which appears to be too much. I will go back and recut this lower step at .1" longer to solve the lack of swing clearance for the main platform.
Stoked to hear it! Thanks for the encouragement, it’s easy to focus just on the things that aren’t working and forget to appreciate the things that are
This is also from the a very early calibration as I haven’t had time to recalibrate it so I’m guessing 3 months of improvement would yield even better results.
Yeah I added those to just lighten up the design; however the little guy used them as extra hand holds so they definitely provide a few benefits. Without a CNC so time consuming with it was no biggie at all!
Hand holds are definitely great to include and having them double as a weight reducer is a great feature. I have twins so I already need to build a second kitchen helper. Right now, they both climb up the one at the same time, and it gets very cramped. Would you mind sharing your design? I really like that it folds. I tried making a folding helper pre-M4, and it didn’t work out for me.
