Hello from New Zealand

I’m on Waiheke.

(put it as a general reply before, so may not have seen this)

I’m in Nelson. Bought my Maslow online during lockdown while Cindy was telling us all we shouldn’t really do that - turns out it arrived with no customs fees and no GST! Woot :slight_smile: Very happy and would thoroughly recommend to anyone who has the balls to build it, well worth the money even if you did have to pay duty on it.

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Hey I’m in Kumeu, I’ve got a few things on my cutting list I need to get around to doing. (Small boat parts is actually one of them)

I’m in Upper Hutt and have been having a blast cutting stuff. I ended up buying mine from makermade cnc. No problem and no additional fees. I had a friend bring over the recommended ridgid router and using a step-down transformer to power it( I plan to move back to the US in the future and figured I’d bring it along…well at least the important bits) I’m currently trying to decide how to upgrade my zaxis because over the past week its no longer reliable for repeatable up and down Z movement. Here some stuff I’ve done recently.

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@walter is in Lower Hutt so you have at least one Maslow nearby

@walter what kind of setup do you have? Any Z axis mods?

Hi can you tell me please how much it cost to set it up and where to buy everything? Btw am in Auckland too

That’s a bit of a “How long is a piece of string” question.

I bought a kit from MakerMade, but you’ll still need a small router - I’d recommend a router with speed control so you can slow it down.
And I would strongly recommend making/buying one of the z-axis mods rather than trying to hack the height control on the router (if it has one).
Along with that comes making the frame. If you can make an oversized frame it really helps for doing full sheet cuts (that also means get the extra long chains). Also the rigidity of the top bar that the two main motors will be mounted to matters. I’d recommend using an aluminium framing for this. I’d also recommend making your frame fairly rigid overall and putting it on wheels

Thank you for replying. I do have plunger router Bosch 1200 AE from bunningsthat i bought few years ago. So Before i place my maslow order i was wondering what should i add extra in order so i dont have to place second order? Cheers guys

Hey Guys
I have ordered my basic maslow kit for around 950NZD. Anything that i should prepare before it arrives so i can start making stuff once arrives?
I dont have any expensive software though for designing like Autocad or fusion 360. What software you guys use before Design goes to CNC?
Cheers

Ive had pretty good luck with both the free and later paid versions of Fusion 360. There is a learning curve but for me it was worth it because everything was done with one tool with no need to transition from one piece of software to another. There is even a maslow specific post processor for it which is nice. Haven’t had much experience with the others though.

I’ve had goo luck with Carbide Create and EstlCam in the free versions. EstlCam in the free version does give a countdown for certain things that kept getting longer, but I haven’t used that in a while and it wasn’t’ too expensive ($60 USD I think). The free version of Carbide Create only prohibits you from the 2.5/3D relief carving. Just look for a GRBL output.

Thank you for replying. May i ask how much it cost for full version and is it easy to learn fusion 360?
Cheers

I will have look at carbide creates then. Thank you so much for your help

How much work can be done with free version of Fusion 360? Thnx

Hi Sailor
My kit is on the way and i will be using my bosch 1200AE. May i ask how did you set up this router model please? Cheers

Autodesk has been implementing some restrictions in the maker/free version but for the purposes of Maslow, they are not a show stopper. Truthfully, I’m only using the paid version as I am doing commercial work with it and I want to be above board with my clients. It’s not necessary to pay for the license features for what we do with Maslow. If you want to learn an Industry standard CAD/CAM package then Fusion is a good way to go. There is a learning curve that can be frustrating though. I ony stuck with it because I wanted to learn CAM more than I wnated to make stuff.

There are a number of other tools that the community has used that probably work just as well for our purposes but I dont really have much experience with them.

Kia Ora Fellas.

I am in Prebbleton and have had mine running for a couple of years now. Happy to chip in with what I’ve done here in the 03.

Ralph

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Hi Wallybums, kiwidust and Blessed_blessed! We’ve got quite the wee kiwi contingent going on here now :slight_smile:

I’m in the top of the South and have been running mine for a couple of years now on el-cheapo Bunnings routers (they say they’re DIY use only, and since I built the CNC I think that’s DIY lol :slight_smile:

Sing out if you guys need any local help or advice! I’ve tried most of the software and struggled through my share of problems (both hardware, and software) learning all the way. Be ready for a journey. Things will go wrong. You will ruin boards. But you will also get to know your machine well and will end up with it dialled in sweet. It’s kinda like 3D printing - you need to be willing to get in there and get your hands dirty fiddling with things if you want to get good results.

Blessed_blessed, you could work on building your frame and wasteboard arrangement while you wait for the kit. That’s what I did and then I was ready to start putting things together when the kit arrived. Also you could prep whatever device you’re going to dedicate to running WebControl (if that’s what you’re going to do) and get it set up on your network etc ready to go.

Best of luck to you all and make sure to post to the ‘What I cut today’ topic when you have something to show!

Pete

Blessed_blessed, FWIW I’m using Inkscape for CAD and jscut for CAM. Both are free in multiple senses of the word, and I run them on a free operating system too - Ubuntu

You might notice a pattern there in my toolchain :wink: