Idea/suggestion - Spider couplings for z-axis

Hardware
1

A thought, but I don’t know how expensive the spider couplings (eg, Lovejoy) are vs the spiral-spring ones (err… McMaster-Carr wants a small fortune for either of them).

With a spider-coupling, you can always have the same coupling for the “Maslow/Motor” side, and different diameters for various router on the “router side.” (Which may make sourcing parts easier or worse), and

If you want to detach your router and put it into a base, you can make it “hand-adjustable” by losening the 4 bolts that hold the 2 brackets together and sliding the motor up so it disengages. Then you can manually change depth via the “thru-table adjustment nut” or by rotating the bottom spider by hand (print markings on some tz-tape and you can have your indicator back).
If you mark “0” on the coupling and on fixed point, it should be pretty easy to reassemble and not have to reset the router zero (since the spiders have to rotate 120 degrees before they mesh again).

OTOH… don’t lose the rubber spider…
FWIW… then again, I’m having more fun with Maslow than with my router table…

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Bwahaha… I’m going to print some and see how they do: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2760182

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spider couplers tend to be larger than the spiral ones we are using, and have
more give in them.

4

I made a set of these for a tr8 conversion on my Printrbot, while waiting for the factory made ones to float across the Pacific. The hot melt glue spiders worked pretty well

That said, I agree with David, the aluminum ones work fine (on a Maslow, not so much on a Printrbot), and are both cheap and easy to find

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