I haven’t seen anything on how the belts are mounted and was wondering if I’d be able to take a 4’x8’ sheet, place it on a table and mount the belts to its corners. I understand I’d be unable to use the full sheet, but this could make it much easier to use in my cramped garage.
Hypothetically, how much of the sheet could be used if a set up like that is allowed.
per an earlier answer, you need at least a foot in from the edges, more is
better.
see the thread on concrete anchors for pictures of the mounts
David Lang
There is a significant amount of tension in the belts so something like a single sheet of plywood is probably too flexible to give you precise cuts. If you had a workbench under the plywood that would work though. @dlang is right that your work area would be more like 2’x6’ in that case
so the minimum space between the anchor points for cutting full 4x8 foot sheets would be 6X10 feet and if you want to cut 5x5 sheets as well you would need 7X10 feet, correct? when cutting near the edges do you need a thickness spacer to match the work sheet thickness in order to keep the black plate flat? Can Maslow4 be mounted on a vertical wall or does it have to be at an angle for a gravity assist like past maslows. Can it be used flat on a workbench and stored when not in use and if so how difficult is it to set up and take down? I am sure I will have more questions but having four tension belts instead of two chains sounds like getting a Maslow4 is in my future.
That is correct, but if you have the room having 6.5’x11’ would be better at least in the upright configuration.
If you want to cut right to the edge then yes, but the opposing belts help keep the sled level until very close (maybe 1 inch) of the edge
I haven’t tested this well enough to say for certain. My guess is that it would work, but maybe not quite as well. It’s on my “to try” list, but it hasn’t made it to the top.
The hardest part is attaching the belts. Other than that you just press a button and the belts spool themselves in for storage, or extend themselves out when you are ready to use it. If you had something like threaded inserts in the top surface of the work bench that you could attach the other end of the belts to with bolts I’d say the whole setup process would be maybe 3min?
Keep em coming! If you have a question then someone else is probably wondering too so it’s always worth asking.
so the minimum space between the anchor points for cutting full 4x8 foot
sheets would be 6X10 feet and if you want to cut 5x5 sheets as well you would
need 7X10 feet, correct?
correct.
when cutting near the edges do you need a thickness spacer to match the work
sheet thickness in order to keep the black plate flat?
Bar has said that it’s not strictly required (the tension on the belts help
prevent it from tipping over the side) but it’s a good idea.
Can Maslow4 be mounted on a vertical wall or does it have to be at an angle
for a gravity assist like past maslows.
it needs to be on an angle because you will have trouble driving the bit into
the wood if you have it on a vertical wall (but you may be able to make it work
with a sharp bit and a ramped entry)
Can it be used flat on a workbench and stored when not in use and if so how
difficult is it to set up and take down?
yes, how hard will depend on the frame you use, how it’s hinged, etc.
as an ultimate example, Bar put 4 anchors in his driveway and attached the belts
to them and made it work.
David Lang
@bar , with the belts on different axial planes does that mean that the attachment points need to be at different heights as well.
IOW, do we need to shift the attachment points in order to keep the belts parallel with the work surface?
probably not, the belts support some amount of misalignment, but we will have to
see what happens in practice (especially with the more minimal frames where you
end up being closer to the anchors)
David Lang
Nope, the software takes care of calculating that for you so the attachment points can all be at the same height.
@dlang is right though that if you want to cut really close to the anchor points the limiting factor is the change in height. If the anchor points were at the same height as the spools on the router you could cut right up to the anchor points…maybe there should be a setting for that…so many interesting ideas to explore.
I wouldn’t do a specific setting. I would make the software allow you to go
right up to the anchor points and have a warning that getting too close will run
into grief (possibly do some testing to show the problem happening). I suspect
that misaligned anchors will work as you get pretty close, but cause a lot of
wear on the belt, so you could occasonally get away with it, but if you tried to
do it all the time you would cause the belt to fail.
David Lang
@bar is being planar with height adjustment at each mounting point a bad thing? Or just not necessary?
I’m not sure I understand 
Ah, ok. I get it. I asked a similar question a few posts up:
My understanding is that it may not be necessary. Also, it won’t hurt and could help.
Ah I understand now!
You do not need to make the mounting points at different heights, in fact the mounting points being lower down helps pull the sled against the surface while it’s cutting.
Putting the mounting points higher up so the belts are level could be helpful if you are using it in the horizontal configuration where down force isn’t important because it would let the sled get closer to the anchor points so it could be worth exploring, but the default option is to have the mounting points in plane.
Are the belts long enough for an 11’x7’ mounting rectangle?
with the suggested 2’ wider/taller frame, you need
sqrt((11+2)^2+(7+2)^2)= 16.12 ft belts, that’s larger than what is planned, and
may be long enough to have some grief coiling it up (although this is a place
where building your own frame could be an advantage, make the take-up reels
larger so that you can spool more belt on them)
or were you meaning the mounting points at 11x7, in which case we need to know
what material size you are talking about. 4x8 with 1.5’ offsets would match that
mounting size, which is actually slightly smaller than the recommended offsets.
If you are talking the minimum suggested 1’ offset, that could be 9x5, which
would be sqrt(10^2+6^2)=11.6 ft, easily within the supplied 13-14 ft that bar is
expecting to include
I don’t know what the planned belt size is, but it’s not expensive to order
more, as long as you are willing to wait for the slow boat from china 
David Lang
I just thought about something. I had been wondering the same things about keeping belts level. Then realized that the belts are around the router case. Which means height will change with cutting depth.
No, there is a tube around the router that holds the belts, they are not at all
anchored to the router.
Right now Bar is attaching all belts at the same level (about the level of the
wasteboard), there have not yet been tests to see how much this matters, but if
you always have 2 ft between the edge of the workpiece and the anchor, it may
not be enough error to make a big difference (I think it will in the corners,
but we’ll hve to see)
David Lang
Then I am not understanding how this sled is being constructed at all. Is there a way to use a brush with vacuum. Might not need at 75 degrees but if using horizontally I believe will be needed so sled is no running on wood chips.
