Hello all,
I have been looking at the Maslow 4.1 and am having some back and forth thoughts about purchasing. On one side, I love the design because it gives me accessability to cut any 4x8 ft sheet into pieces for projects instead of using a jigsaw by hand. This should give me more accuracy (as long as it is within 2mm and has straight cuts), efficient material use, and the ability to tuck away the frame when not in use. On the other hand, some people have major issues with calibration/general operation. They (two vocal and informative posts/rants on reddit) haven’t been able to use the product at all. Also, I am worried about support, updates, and replacement part availability through the future due to funding issues the Maslow team have brought up.
I will be renting a property, so I won’t be able to anchor the belts to the floor and have to rely on the frame for anchoring. Would this cause major issues with accuracy considering the frame can flex? I am not looking for major accuracy, but I want something I can get working with a bit of tinkering. My projects will consist of making a coosa board casting deck on my boat and slot-together frames for engineering projects. Does anyone have any advice/reviews that can help me gauge if this is a good device for my needs?
I have been very happy playing with mine. I was careful putting it together. Bar and the community on the forum were amazing at supporting me getting started. It is definitely possible to have it work well with a collapsible frame or a wall sized frame. My experience has been good. Mine is accurate to about 2 mm but does details within a cut better than that. I am running version 1.16. it is an experimental hobby machine that is being developed by people having fun with it. It is not yet an out of the box production machine I would not plan on setting up a business with it. I would spend the 5-600 on the kit and another 200-300 on the router and frame and then some router bits if you can afford that and are interested in the project of getting it set up and spending some time getting started. It will take some trouble shooting and work to get it going. I have had fun now making mine and cutting some art projects and signs for friends. I am happy to have a machine that I can stow away and can cut full 4 by 8 sheets and that costs less than 5k . I like the community here and that it is all open source. Look through the projects section of the forum to see what people are doing with it. Hope that helps
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I’d echo @wouldchuck and put my own perspective in. If you like tinkering you’ll likely get on well with it. My take on it is it reminds me of the early Ender 3 days of 3D printers - it’s a solid kit, that if you’re prepared to get to know you can get good results with, and benefits from engaging with the forums and a bit of tinkering can get even more.
How big will your space be? I wonder if a horizontal X-frame might suit you better if you have the space, it’s what a few of us have moved to.
Ah yes, I know exactly who you mean. It was not the kit for him. It didn’t perform exactly how he thought it should work and when people tried to steer him in the right direction he threw a tantrum. When he didn’t get the response he wanted to his tantrum he threw an even bigger tantrum and started going back through years old posts to resurrect them to add… shall we say…not positive…things on them. Bar is pretty commited to openess and didn’t ban him (AFAIK) despite more than enough reason to (IMO), so you can search back and find all his posts if you’re curious, it’s not difficult as it’s a similar username.
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