This was something I had wanted to try for some time. I bought 2 M4s so I had a full set of spares.
Because getting stuff here is a total pain. Like when the CeeBees ‘stole’ my package because it was US mail, and no one here ever gets sent stuff from the US apart from them.
Anyway, I digress, the objective here was to preassemble as much of an M4 as practical, ie get the number of parts (subassemblies) to a minimum, while still being able to pack it into a smallish box
So it’s mainly preassembled arms and the support rods, this reduces the number of parts considerably.
It won’t fit in the M4 box as it is, but relatively speaking there’s a lot more space, and a lot less parts.
My key takeaway from this would be to somehow have the encoder and motor on each arm mounted differently. Then it would be easy to have a smaller box and a much simpler assembly
I think the point is that there is probably a market for a partially pre-assembled M4 kit, but in its current form, but the M4 would be hard to package compactly.
As @jwolter said there is a market for pre-assembled / semi-assembled M4s
A pre-assembled M4 is a fairly large and unwieldy item. But a semi-assembled one would be ideal for many people.
Specifically with respect to the arm sub-assemblies they are a very three dimensional shape, whereas the sled is very definitely 2D. They don’t “pack well” together, resulting in a package that would be largely empty space. Not a great shipping idea.
So specifically come up with an arm subassembly that is ‘flatter’ somehow and the packing/packaging problem goes away. And you’re left with a smaller volume to ship as well.
Ok, I didn’t think of that. But those are very different design specs, and I think the whole system would need an overhaul. Maybe design it with a spindle included to fill more space in the packaging and safe on buying the DeWalt and postage for that. It came in a pretty big box.
I think though the people that do not want to assemble it themselves would also have problems with a semi assembled version and would gladly pay extra postage for a fully assembled and tested version. The problem then for Maslow also becomes when you sell a complete product you have to give more guarantees and that would make it more expensive.
Overall I think it could be a good idea but it is not as simple as slapping on the motors differently and semi-pre-assembling it. Besides there is a fully build and tested Maslow for sale (I am guessing with no guarantee) here: Assembled Preowned Maslow4 Kit For Sale! Sebring, FL 33875
