Well I started building this frame four days ago and just completed the machine calibration. I like the unistrut idea (obviously). Thanks for the alternative!
I found that I had to use a piece of 2" (?) unistrut to stiffen up support for the sacrificial layer (which was warped). I placed it diagonally from top left to lower right and it helped make the whole frame more rigid - no side to side wobble.
Thanks again - what a great idea.
-Paul
Frame partially complete. Need to finish tying it into the wall and mounting the motors.
What type of board would warp less:
Plywood, MDF, OSB / Particleboard, underlayment.
In my limited experience it’s OSB
If you keep it dry, MDF
They all warp if you store them improperly.
In my case i have a unheated shed so temperature and moisture content varies a lot.
I want to use wood. i can use the walls as part of the frame still i need to get hat angle so that needs a frame.
Plywood is best for moisture. Pressure treated plywood is available too. Be mindful of pressure treated lumber though. It’s not usually kiln dried and tends to warp and twist more than regular lumber over time.
I don’t think you’ll need pressure treated if it’s inside a shed though.
make the top beam out of LVL or layered plywood, that is the part you have to
worry about warping in terms of accuracy, the rest of the fram just needs to be
close enough to straight that the sled doesn’t have problems riding the high
spots and not cutting deep enough.
If you’re worried about warping, you can make wooden i-beams out of plywood
I was just wondering after seeing some very warped sheets at the store the other day.
Working with warped wood can be a bit of a headache.
Wood is just a material. All material has defects. It’s learning to work with them. When they build a house with those materials around you they push them into “straight enough”.
Thank you
I was thinking of a kind of torsion-box frame with lighter materials. Although that’s not a very practical way. I like the wall-frame designs but for some reason the stock design wants more attention.
I’m seeing this awesome unistrut design and the only thing I’m thinking is now I can have a 4x8 CNC and a panel saw…
It has been brought up a few times. It is a possibility. Great minds …
I brought it up somewhere but can’t find it.
I vote you to be our first to complete a panel saw conversion 
Thank you
I already view the maslow as a panel saw substitute and it was a major part of my decision to purchase one, although a GC straight horizontal and vertical cut wizard (plug for a wizard add-on architectural mode or quicky gcode generator app…) would be nice.
With the 1m/sec speed limit a spinning blade doesn’t really add a lot other than a small reduction in kerf width. You can build a panel saw from electrical conduit and maslow cut parts, or a low budget version from a straight board and a couple clamps. Couple 2x4s on a 4x8 trailer makes a good base in the non-frigid months
With the 1m/sec speed limit
1m/min not /sec
a spinning blade doesn’t really add a lot other than a small reduction in kerf width.
well, a blad will not wear out as fast as a small router bit
Until that spinning blade gets pulled more from one side then the other, the blade either gets stuck and gets launched through the room at high speed, then it also adds excitement, running, shouting and blood everywhere, or in a vest case scenario, your workpiece is ruined. Look up circular saw kickback videos.
If you use a circular saw vertically, there is nothing holding it down, if you don’t hold it.
If you use a normal handheld circular saw, it’s pulling the saw to the workpiece
(and unless you spend a lot of money, they’re pretty heavy)
It’s really unlikely to throw the saw any distance, especially if it’s hanging
from some sort of bracket (not the normal maslow style sled, because that can
rotate, which is not good for a circular saw)
kickback on a table saw is a real danger, that that normall results from the
wood getting pinched between the saw blade and the fence, and it shoots the wood
in the direction the blade is rotating.
for a panel cutter, the blade is rotating down, the pieces of wood are very
heavy, and so aren’t going to go very far, the saw is very low power
compared to a table saw, and there is no fence to pinch the wood against.
I’ve never heard of a blade flying across the room from a circular saw or table
saw, let alone a panel cutter (unless someone has butchered them to remove all
blade guards)
It’s probably been suggested before, but I was thinking about the possibility of using a series of pipes and rollers that would “entrap” the sled so there’s no way it can escape and at the same time, to solve a problem I currently have, eliminate the tilting of the sled due to CG issues. Something like as shown below (roughly). Blue rectangles represent a set of dual rollers. You could make a “universal” sled that used some type of triangular kinematic linkage that you mount another sled to with either a router or a saw (as the job requires). The sled could also be designed to rotate and lock so you can go from horizontal to vertical cuts when using a saw.
