My name is Camille and I currently run a small engineering business (very small as I am alone) in France. I have just found exactly what I was looking for : a very simple open source cnc router concept for large plywood sheet. Congratulations, it is quite simple, affordable and seems efficient.
My idea is to try to build one maslow with the goal to fit small professional workshop needs. I think for this kind of uses, the reliability needs to be improved to make real production. Many drawbacks : the complexity of the system will increase hence the costs but I think we can reach a good compromise.
My first ideas of improvement :
Steel tubular structure
New design of router base with Z axis
Electrical cabinet similar to industry standards (controllino,…)
Don’t hesitate to add some ideas and share your minds about that as I will begin the design very soon.
Welcome to the Maslow forums! It’s great to see you taking interest in this project. Depending on your needs, this could be a very useful tool. Keep in mind that this machine is not intended for production work at this time. It simply doesn’t have the power and feedrate to keep up with commercially made machines. Some of this is fixable, some of it would require redesigning the machine.
I myself am still in the building phase of my machine. Like you, one of my first thoughts for improvement is a steel frame. If you’re handy with a welder, this is a fairly easy albeit time consuming task. I have spent weekends and occasional weeknights working on mine since the beginning of July and I just got to the mock up phase:
I am curious what your ideas are for modifying the base. There is a Z-axis add-on for the machine that would give you this functionality if that’s what you’re looking for. If you haven’t already, you may also want to read through @bar’s thread about modifying the sled. He has a very good idea for simplifying the math involved with the sled.
I also have been planning out electrical enclosures. So far, I’ve made one for the arduino and motor shield with my 3D printer and some spare electronics I have sitting around. It’s nothing like the production machines’ cabinets I deal with at work, but it’s a start. I am also thinking about a vented plywood box for the console that runs the whole thing.
I hope that I was able to give you a little insight to building a steel Maslow, and maybe shared some ideas
Your current steel structure is exactly what I mean. One thing I would like to add is the ability to dismantle the whole structure easily as I would like to change from my workshop to others. An other thing maybe during the prototype phase is the ability to change the angle of the main panel. I don’t really know if it would help.
I fully agree with you, this kind of concept will not be able to have the same precision and the same feedrate than production cnc routers but I would like to try to push a little bit just to see what we can achieve.
For the base, I see also a steel cut plate and I would like to adapt this kind of router (Kress 1050 FME-1) and to do the Z axis myself without the help of the built-in router Z-axis. I think also that pivot link between the chain and the base will be also a very good step forward. The system proposed by @bar is very interesting but I fear that the stiffness of the system will decrease. For the next step, when the first prototype will be issued, I see also a system with 3 or 4 chains to make the pre-tress of the first ones.
Is a good idea, especially if you redesign the sled. What the ‘sweet spot’ is, between gravity and friction, you will find out after the fully equipped sled is hanging. For example: With my heavy Bosch and 2 bricks I started with a 17kg sled. I fould that I could go down to 6° tilt with good results (stock frame is ~15°). After reducing the weight of the bricks by 3/4, I needed to increase the tilt to 10°. You can adjust a little with the mounting holes on the brackets, but ideally you would need adjustable motor mount as well, to keep the chains parallel to the workpiece to avoid the sprocket jumping.
The advantage of the steel frame is that it will allow for more a more rigid assembly. I really admire the simplicity of the stock frame, but between wood movement and those arms hanging out there on their own I was nervous about the level of accuracy the stock machine would have. The other goal of my design was to make it easy to break down and modify. The only space I currently have is my enclosed cargo trailer that I’ve converted to a small hobby shop. As a result, i have limited space and had to make my frame slightly smaller than the full-size machine. My wife and I are planning on buying a house in the near future, so I will be able to bolt on extensions to make it full size when we have more space for it.
You’ll fit in well here We’re all trying to push our machines to get them as fast and accurate as possible. I personally have visions of improving mine to have an auto tool changer and a more powerful spindle to get more meat out in each pass. I also want to add a separate boring head to reduce the number of tool changes I have to perform. I would love to have a line of these improved versions as the backbone for my own custom furniture shop, but that’s waaay off in the future.
I too want to move to a steel sled, but more to do away with needing extra weights to make the system work. I’m curious to try out the system Bar has been working on, I’d like to see what problems might come up (I love solving problems )
I know the feeling. I was just about the start the work day when I posted previously. These piles of cabinets aren’t going to program themselves.
Probably a discussion for another thread, but do you find that there’s a one-size-fits-all height for the brackets or do you have to change this based upon your material thickness?
Something to consider is using Laminated 2x4’s and building a frame similar to the steel frame. That is what we did here and the rigidity is awesome without the need for welding. It also mean we can disassemble the machine as needed for moving to new locations. it also has the added benefit of being relatively inexpensive and easy to assemble.
I’m going to use tube connectors to make my aluminum frame, that way I can bolt it together. I guess I could weld it, but will probably be plentry rigid with juts the bolts. you can buy them off McMaster and they are basically a nut you pound into a round OR square tube.
The advantage of the steel frame is that it will allow for more a more rigid assembly. I really admire the simplicity of the stock frame, but between wood movement and those arms hanging out there on their own I was nervous about the level of accuracy the stock machine would have. The other goal of my design was to make it easy to break down and modify. The only space I currently have is my enclosed cargo trailer that I’ve converted to a small hobby shop. As a result, i have limited space and had to make my frame slightly smaller than the full-size machine. My wife and I are planning on buying a house in the near future, so I will be able to bolt on extensions to make it full size when we have more space for it.
also take a look at the alternate design that puts the motors on a solid bar
(search for musings)
Probably a discussion for another thread, but do you find that there’s a one-size-fits-all height for the brackets or do you have to change this based upon your material thickness?
The chains should be close to horizontal, they will tolerate some misalignment,
so 1/4" to 1" probably won’t matter.
read the ‘musings’ topic and consider having a solid tube for the top with the
motors permanently mounted to it, everything after that is non-critical.
For aluminum this makes sense, since it is more difficult to weld than steel. Also means that someone with no welding experience could assemble one of these frames fairly easily and quickly.
I’ve been lurking on that particular thread for awhile, very good material in there. I probably should have posted a link to it in my first post with the others. Your first post in that thread (talking about wood movement and those arms twisting) was what convinced me to pull the trigger on my frame. I will admit that part of my choice to go for a welded steel frame is preference, I do really like steel and enjoy welding .
That being said, a wooden frame such as the one that @Charles_Wiltgen posted is a better solution than mine, especially if you don’t want to spend as much time as I have building. I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that my frame is the ultimate version of the machine, simply another (albeit time-consuming) method of creating a frame.
That’s great news. I may end up machining something thicker than 1" at some point, but the majority of what I want to use my machine for falls within this window.
Hi CNC pros, my country, Dominica, was devastated by a category 5 hurricane on September 18, it took my workshop/container and threw it in a valley. I was able to recover parts of my 2 Oliver CNC machines, however they both were destroyed. Now that I have the body of both machines, I would like to convert the 2 into one machine. That is, join the parts and make one. What I would like is an advise from you all on how I can accomplish this task of making one out of two. I would also be grateful for kit to help me put this together… If you require photos of my damages I would happy to send to you
to restate what I think you are asking, you have parts of a couple different CNC
machines and want to design a new machine using the parts.
To get any help, you would need to post information about what parts you have,
which will probably require photos.
Be aware that the Maslow is not a traditional CNC design, so the focus of people
here may not match the type of hardware you have, let alone the resulting
machine type.
First question, what are you looking for in the resulting machine? CNC machines
have a huge range of sizes and capabilities, so saying that you want ‘A CNC
machine’, doesn’t tell us if you are looking for something to do precision work
over a few square inches of circuit board, something to cut large parts out of
steel, somthing to cut wood panels, etc.
We’re they Oliver inteliCarvers? Looks like they sold the product line. Did you try contacting the new owners and seeing if they can help? Looks like there’s an intellicarve forum too
David, here what I have. My both machines were destroyed, so I want to take the structural parts to make one. I don’t intend to use he same electronicsize , I could go with the Chinese kit of the a11 controller with the air cooling spindle motor and other parts.
I used my machine to create wooden plaques. You can have a look at my photos on facebook to see some of the work .
It looks like there is a lot of corrosion in those pictures, are the rails still good (straight and smooth)?
can you assemble the parts into one mechanically functioning machine? or are you going to have to replace parts first?
If you rails and frame are bent, you are probably betteroff starting from scratch than fighting to re-use the existing parts.
There are a number of websites out there dedicated to the design and construction of CNC machines in general. This site is focused on the Maslow, which uses completely different technology than the machines you are used to. So while people here are willing to give advice, it will be lower quality advice than you would get from other sites
We’re all trying to push our machines to get them as fast and accurate as possible. I personally have visions of improving mine to have an auto tool changer and a more powerful spindle to get more meat out in each pass. I also want to add a separate boring head to reduce the number of tool changes I have to perform. I would love to have a line of these improved versions as the backbone for my own custom furniture shop, but that’s waaay off in the future.
)
