Meet Major Tom, the Berea-Midpark High School's Maslow

Our very long term project (~9 months since our kit arrived) has been to build our Maslow. It was a slow process, as we were only able to work on it a few hours at a time, but it finally came together.

My original plan was to put the motors just above the unistrut, but as I heard more folks having problems with the non-orthogonal zones (top center, lower left, lower right), I decided to move the motors up and out a little. Of course, this puts the motors on a cantilever, meaning they have the potential to flex the frame, which would be a source of inaccuracy. I may put a 2x4 between the motor mount points to stabilize this, if it turns out to be a problem.

Our sled is just a temporary, although it is performing pretty well. We used a sandwich design, using aluminum standoffs to get the 45-degree linkage to the right Z-height, and a top plate to stabilize the standoffs.

Mounting the z-axis to the top plate means the motor mount doesn’t have to reach very far.

The pile of sawdust is a testament to the fact that the dust collection system can’t keep up with the cooling air pumped through the router. The pressure inside the cutting chamber is higher than atmospheric, so dust is blowing out.

The suction issue is so bad that our homemade dust separator is starved for air!

In the back is storage for sheet goods, and the weights. Eventually we will either go away from the weights, or put them in a tunnel so they don’t catch on anything.

Our first project is the Maslow Stool from the Community Garden. We’re not done cutting yet, but so far it is cutting well!

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Looking good. It’s interesting to see how different each machine is. I mentioned this before but I drilled a bunch of different size holes in my top router guard. It allows more air in but prevents large chunks from flying out. I have 0 visible dust. Not sure if it’s that or the vacuum. My hose is also bigger and fits on the outside of the exhaust port. I ordered a two extra guards from rigid - they were a couple bucks.

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it’s a good start. The chain looks way above the center of gravity to me. When you do your permanent sled you might want to lower the chains?

if you put a baffle in the router as outline in the meticulous z axis thread then the router wont’ blow the dust out. of course the vacuum will need to be under the baffle.

also furniture sliders will prevent the vacuum issues you have as air can flow under the sled.

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Yeah, I can’t quite figure out why it balances way up there. I didn’t think I did anything unusual. Good points on the vacuum and furniture sliders. I also just realized I never put a bungee on the Z-axis.

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