Maslow for sail making!?

No Judgement
1

Hey guys!
I’m thinking about buying a maslow for Windsurf sail prototyping. So I think I’d need an auxilary/spindle axis controlling the orientation of a drag knife. I’d be cutting the panels from monofilm and sail laminates and then sticking and sewing them all together. I’d have to make a vacumn bed too I imagine.
It’s just an idea at the moment so I have no idea if it would work, what are your thoughts and ideas on this? What would be the process of adding that axis for orientation and how would that corrospond to the software?

Cheers guys!
Jake

1 Like
2

so a giant sillouette?

3

I like the idea!
Instead of having maslow drag a knife, it might be easier to have maslow draw it with a sharp tipped sharpie, and cut it manually.
I think that method may also help you overcome the problem of how much offset you get between the “center” of the maslow versus the dragging knife.

-M

4

a drag knife rotates on it’s own, you don’t have to control it.

David Lang

5

Thanks for the replies guys.
Good shout on the sharpie idea! Because its mainly for design and repeateatabilty that would do the job.
As for cutting, there’s two ways of doing it really. The more accurate machines jump up and orientate before each cut. The swivel drag knife should work for what I’m after :thinking: only one way to find out.

6

with a swivil drag knife, there needs to be a leadin so that the kive is
oriented correctly when it hits the area you care about (and hen you change
direction, it needs to take into account the difference betwwen tool center and
blade tip)

David Lang

7

How 'bout a 100 watt soldering iron with a fine tip instead of a knife?

8

Maybe, but it depends on the material and how you prevent the machine from “lingering” on any spot too long.

Standard polyester based cloth (dacron) or nylon, sure a a soldering iron tip, but you will still want it “knife” shaped so that it still some “cutting” type action to separate the two pieces you just melted.

For a mylar material, i’m not sure a melting tip is good. may want to mechanically cut that instead so as to not cause it to shrink from the heat along the edges.

and if you end up with the soldering iron lingering too long in one spot, like if it hangs up or pauses, it may be a problem to have a melting tip on polyester or nylon too long.

m