Inverse Maslow Concept

No Judgement
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So this is either a crazy impractical idea (probably) or a genius one. Build a Maslow with the router turned upside down, so that the bit is facing out toward the user. The sled rides on a very smooth, flat surface, and the work piece rests on supports that hold it above the sled.

Supporting the work piece would be difficult, because you need a clear zone for the chains, and flexible materials would tend to bow in the center. Keeping the work piece perfectly parallel to the sled support would be critical. The advantage, though, is that the sled would no longer have to ride on all your previous cuts. Using this kind of setup, you could do true 3-D CNC routing.

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you would be basically be limited to working with 1" or thicker materials because most other materials will sag in the middle like you state.

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the low rider cnc by v1 engineering is a flat bed cheap cnc might be better for 3d carving since the z axis is much higher.

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Any drawings or pictures of what you’re talking about? I think I broke my brain trying to picture what you’re talking about. The sled rides on a flat surface with the work piece suspended above it at a (supposedly) uniform height?

Sag could be solved by running ribs of 2x4 or whatever along the top (opposite side of the one that gets cut) and screwing with short screws? As long as the bit wasn’t going to hit them?

Basically a router table with a mobile bit?

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Please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn’t have time to build it to scale or to paint it. The smooth surface is on the left, the work piece on the right, with the sled sandwiched between. You would need some sort of support frame for the work piece,

Inverse%20Maslow
Inverse Maslow.png270×505 13 KB

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I really do agree with AW. With the inverted Maslow it just seems like it might be a nightmare to put your work piece in the frame not to mention that currently Ground Control cannot support raising the z axis while the x and y axis are in motion. I just finished building a 2’ x 3’ MPCNC which seems much better suited for 3D carving. Unfortunately you do need more space for the Lowrider than the Maslow but I can picture somebody coming up with a way to fold it up against a wall when not in use.
Now I don’t want to come across as disloyal to my Maslow, it still works as designed but is a little limited when it comes to detailed carving of smaller projects such as signs.

Thanks
Jim

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not to mention that currently Ground Control cannot support raising the z axis
while the x and y axis are in motion.

yes it does, there was a limitation that circular movement wasn’t coordinated
with the Z axis, but that’s now fixed (or will be in the next release)

the stock Z axis is very slow, so if you are doing a lot of 3d work you will
want a faster Z.

Now I don’t want to come across as disloyal to my Maslow, it still works as
designed but is a little limited when it comes to detailed carving of smaller
projects such as signs.

signs are not always ‘small projects’ :slight_smile:

the Z is slow, but the maslow should work for sign work. It’s real limit is that
it can’t do projects where you are going to be cutting away large portions of
the surface.

David Lang

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