there may also be a place for a larger sled to be avaiable (especially if the
sled itself can be low-stress. possibly a varient of the tower that is injection
molded and put on a locally generated sled??? I don’t know how many pieces you
are planning to mold to make the machine)
David Lang
A small detail question, but is the honeycomb design compatible with a standard hex nut size? Asking with the idea of attachments to the sled, ie cable management/ hose management, or fastening an extension to the sled. Thanks!
ah, ok. thank you. Where are you seeing these details? I went back to some of bars earlier posts (i thought i remembered seeing this) but I couldn’t find anything.
even if it happened to be a common size, the nuts will just pull out, there
isn’t something that you would be able to pull against.
and if you are using some epoxy to hold them in place, they don’t need to fit.
David Lang
David Lang
WOAH! That is such a cool project. I’ve been theorizing that would be possible, but I’ve never actually done it. So cool!
If you need 3 inches of z-axis travel for carving foam like that I can absolutely make that happen. It would probably be something that would happen after the bulk of the kits ship though because I’d need to get different motors ordered.
It’s not, but that’s a fantastic idea! I’ll look into how feasible that would be.
Maybe deliberate mounting points with threaded inserts, for ‘future expansion’?
I’ll be wanting to mount the PSU for the spindle that I got.
@dlang fair enough, though I was thinking of a lateral force connection like a horizontal clamp so not necessarily a high pulling force. Hex nuts upside down could thread into a clamp for a sled extension and apply some light pressure for stability. I’d make matching hex style connectors, but I don’t have access to a 3D printer atm.
But you are right, there’s always a glue option 
thank you. I did find it eventually.
More travel in the Z is something I would be interested too and for essentially the same reason. One of my uses will be to create foam structures for either male or female fiberglass molds/plugs. I’m fine with just gluing together thinner material or extending the bit manually if the system can be repeatably zerod after (limited by having to move the sled manually to each deep pocket) but the option for more travel may be handy.
While it’s pretty straight forward to epoxy some nuts into a void it is nicer if the nuts fit fairly nice. Saves epoxy too.
This is a fantastic idea. There will absolutely be some built in mounting points. It doesn’t cost much if anything and it doesn’t have any downside that I can see.
I just checked my stash of machine thread bolts and the most common thing I have is M6 - in other words that was the easiest thing for me to get a hold of here.
A 6mm diameter hole in things needing to be bolted to the sled is probably a good compromise for people who only have 1/4" drill bits (AKA 6.35mm).
The PSU for my spindle has some M3 tapped holes in its case, plus some 3+mm holes and slots. But I think I’d be more comfortable with drilling something out to use M6 instead. I’m guessing you would have a better idea about what might be needed to mitigate vibration better.
that would also ease the concerns around how to mount the electronics when
people are using a different spindle.
David Lang
Sorry, I didn’t express myself correctly. If I leave the Maslow 4 stationary (but hanging) for a month without power supply and maybe I tighten the belts to be able to mount a very thick panel, how does the electronic circuit without current manage to understand if the encoders have moved?
How does Maslow 4 work with very high pieces? Do I need to declare the height in Ground Control? Is there a command that loosens the chains to be able to insert the piece under the slide? Should the belts always run parallel to the frame panel? A thousand thanks.
Very good,
I will put this back on your pile of things to do once I get my machine. In batch #2
Thanks
I found it, thank you.
Which spindle did you go with, if you don’t mind?
If the power is completely disconnected it will forget where it is. In that case you would need to retract the belts to set them back to zero and then extend them again.
I haven’t quite decided how this will work yet. There will probably be a setting in the software, but for most uses cases (switching from cutting 1/2 inch plywood to 3/4 inch plywood for example) I wouldn’t expect it to make enough of a difference to be worth worrying about. If you want to cut something super thick then I think having a setting would be worth it.
Not this exact one - but something very similar
Jual Air Cooled Spindle Motor CNC 500 Watt - Kota Surabaya - hand made tools | Tokopedia
The PSU has a potentiometer wired in for speed control, which I’d obviously like to make controllable by GCode.
With all the talk of mounting spindle PSU’s to the M4 sled, I’ve been wondering what is the reason for this. What is the benefit over mounting the PSU to the frame?