I think this is where my questions belong. If not, please move to the appropriate forum!
For Maslow4:
Can it run from a modified sine wave inverter? My shop is unheated and off-grid … and I’m cheap! 1500W continuous, 3000W peak. It starts induction motors up to 1 HP fine … not sure if the electronics will be happy with the Square-ish wave. I have seen some additional heating on induction smaller AC motors, but it takes an hour or two.
I plan to remove the sled and store that in heated storage … and that appears to have ALL of your kit … but I think I should ask … Are there any parts that will be damaged by freezing? … as I mentioned, I have an un-heated off-grid shop … I’m in Saskatchewan, Canada. My shop COULD get down to -40C (40 below zero F). I obviously won’t be running anything at that temperature. If I need to run the Maslow4 in the winter I’ll move my truck out of the heated garage, move the Maslow4 in there, and let it warm up for a day or so. That said, are there any parts that I need to remove from the Maslow4 in the fall and store in heated storage (besides the sled)?
I think it should run fine, but I can’t say that I’ve actually tested it. It’s 24 volts DC after the power supply to technically you could run it on two car batteries if you wanted to be truly off grid. The 24 volts that is used to power the motors is stepped down to 3.3 volts internally for the computers so it doesn’t really need to be exactly 24 volts. I’d bet that anything in the 18-30 volt rage would work fine.
Not that I know of. Again, can’t say I’ve frozen it but all the components are rated to pretty darn low temperatures and there’s not batteries or fluids in there that could be damaged.
Oh the sled has all the electronics on it so if that’s not getting to -40 then it should be 100% fine. Even if the electronics got to -40 I can’t think of anything that would get damaged.
Where could I find a STP file or other 3D model of the unit itself? Before shipping I could try to throw it into Autodesk Inventor and try my hand at whipping up a frame idea. I backed the original Maslow and wasn’t able to really set it up in my apartment garage, but I’m in a home now with more space available, so I’m really excited for the new and improved version.
@bar Does the faster speed of the Maslow 4 change router bit recommendations?
I’m a newb when it comes to routers and was looking at the various
recommendations on the forums, but didn’t know if those recommendations would
hold true with the faster feed speeds vs the original Maslow design.
the machine can move 4-5x faster, but the smaller router also spins 2x-3x
faster. I think this still puts it at the low end of the feeds/speeds charts, so
I expect that the best bits will remain the same.
since the belt position is measured independently of the coil, how much is wound
in won’t affect accuracy. What does affect accuracy is the angle of the belts.
On the original maslow, the anges were such that any error in chain
length/motor position/etc resulted in up to 2x that error in cutting position in
the top center. So it’s really going to depend on how good the calibration logic
is, frame flex, and belt stretch.
I am so excited for the M4. Got my order in this morning. My current Maslow has been on the bench for months now while I have been trying to find time to switch my z-axis from aluminum c-beam to a linear rail design. For some reason there is always something else I have to do first. Now I am likely to not finish the upgrade for years.
I would vote for an official z-axis zeroing solution. And I also plan to look into a proper spindle rather than another router this time around. Will have to print up some parts to mount the power supply to the sled. I look forward to all the inevitable customization that people come up with
Thanks for making this happen @Bar and @RomanG!
@bar led the way in building not only a great product but a great community. When I saw the email announcing the Kickstarter, my reaction went something like this:
“Bar’s got another Kickstarter? I want to support that in some way. So what is it? If it’s something I don’t want to buy, I’ll send a donation. Maslow4? No more bricks? Vertical and horizontal mounting options? I’m all in!”
My thoughts on mounting to the sled are that I could then have a single cable running to the M4 and can split out the AC at the sled to the M4 and the spindle power supply/speed control. Having the power supply on the frame would require a second cable to be coordinated with the sled movement. My current frame has an arm for the control cables to run from the arduino to the sled, but dealing with those hanging cables has always been a source of annoyance for me, even with the cable retractors keeping the slack out of the way. As it was, I still had the power cord for the router to deal with, as well as the vacuum hose. While it would not be a huge difference, halving the number of power cables to the sled seems like a win for me.
With the M4 being able to be used in the horizontal plane, I am considering removing my wall mounted frame all together and establishing corner mounting points (maybe threaded posts that can be installed as needed?) in my workshop floor. I’ve found that it is rare that I need to do long cuts, and so losing half the floor space for a couple hours wouldn’t be too onerous.
So much to plan and implement! Excited for the fun to begin anew
Thanks Bar! good to be back. I have a new garden shed to build in the next year for my wife, so the M4 will definitely come in handy on some of the decorative parts as well as making templates to cut curved structural elements.
Will do. Haven’t started looking into it as yet, but hoping there is enough clearance under the belts to fit the PSU box.
I bought 2 chinese spindles and they were not built that good several years ago especialy the power supply box. thinking brushless battery powered router is the best route to go and make a dedicated ac power supply for it.
Interesting idea, though implementing that might be more work than I am interested in taking on, as opposed to just figuing out routing a cable for an AC router.
I received the email notification for Maslow4 and began scrolling through this forum topic. Maslow4 appears to take all the learning from the previous iteration and bundle it up.
@bar, thanks for your efforts. I appreciate your dedication to open-source; it motivates me to contribute more. I had contributed back in the day, and would be willing again if there were a problem which was not well supported by the other contributors’ skill-sets. Many of the core pieces of the Holey Calibration were implemented by me, and I think that kind of math/calibration is my skill-set. While I haven’t seen it, I believe the foundations of the new 4-link automatic calibration are similar to those of the Holey Calibration. Let me know if there is a targeted activity in that space which is a specific pain-point.
It is good to see some old familiar names: @madgrizzle and @dlang. I am still looking for @MeticulousMaynard, @Gero, and a few others who were significant contributors back in the day.
I now have 3 little @Joshua’s who are just on the fringes of being able to tinker with a Maslow4. I am considering a purchase of the new Maslow4, but I might get reprimanded by my boss (wife).
