Hey everyone I’m looking to aquire one of the new m2 z axis setups (minus the motor and router bracing) for my machine and was curious if anyone already had a good setup when they purchased the m2 upgrade and would be willing to either sell theirs to me or trade for my dxf library. Appreciate any responses since I haven’t heard back from maker Made after making an inquisition on the topic directly through their “contact us”
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I had no response from them either. I ended up buying this c-beam which look similar to what metalmaslow uses:
I got the 8mm lead, 200mm version. It should be a bit faster than the stock maslow. It takes about 3 weeks to arrive from China.
I am in the process of building a mount for it using 80/20 (t-slotted framing) It looks like this in my cad mockup:
I am buying most of my stuff from McMaster because I deal with them a lot, but they are not cheap. Its going to be more than $100 in parts, you can probably do better someplace else on pricing. It uses the same dust collection as the meticulous design, I have to 3d print that still. Also, I will have to 3d print my own clamps as well.
I haven’t finished yet, so I can’t say that all of this will work, but it seems about right. Once I have it assembled I will share my fusion model.
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Hope you don’t mind, meant as nice and constructive critics and exchange of thoughts and mutual development.
I love the design and taking care of the side forces, seen in the first pic.
I’ve prototyped with (no advertising attempted) Makerbeam. 3 screws in a row loose have a good amount of play. That play is still there even tightened if you build a remote vehicle and drive it over rough ground at a bit of speed. Other from the effort to get all profiles tightened angled, check the 90° angles after some cuts. My route was to have the motor down and a 2-way vacuum to get CG on the sled as low as possible, to operate with chains as close to the sheet as possible.
Edit: I cant recommend the solid stuff i used, because it would not fit naturally and needed heavy adjustments. Even if you keep the motor up and the vac in the middle where it is, 2 strong mounts at the back could save time and avoid problems.
I really like these rendered models. Where are you sourcing the clamps?
I’m using the meticulous maslow design currently just looking for an extra sled so I can swap out routers/ bits a bit quicker and just grabbing a quick already built for the job z axis mount seems like the quickest way to do that without sourcing parts for a new meticulous sled which I’ll do I was just looking for a faster option first
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Of course not, your insight is always appreciated. That said, I assume you were writing on your phone since I don’t know what the “remote vehicle” passage refers to.
But I share your concerns, I have hopes that there won’t be any movement. There are also angle braces like this:
I may have to use if it is an issue, but I hope not to need them.
One of the reasons I chose this path was the ability to have translation adjustments in all three axis to align it properly.
Anyways, I will let you know how it goes.
The clamps attaching the router to the slide are 3d printed, they are similar to the meticulous design. Unclear how they will work, if it goes badly, I will have a coworker help me make a metal version.
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The prototype remote vehicle was Wanda that came back deformed.
i never post in the Maslow Forum from my phone. i was referring to prototypes i built with above mentioned beams and the outcome of testing them.
Rest assured that i would be the most happiest person in the universe if this works under load.
Not to push the post direction and I deeply appreciate everyone’s thoughts on the subject but I feel like we’re deviating from my original post direction, sourcing an easy prebuilt z axis ensamble that models the new m2 or metal maslow without having to either source the parts in their entirety or prebuild an entire new meticulous sled.
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Pluss 
%
But still consider that you could do it a bit better :-).
No de-escalation needed from my view. As long as we talk there will be results.
that small 75x75mm gantry plate will not work well with the ridgid router. the internal bearings are only about 30mm apart and can’t take the torque from the heavy router. You need to get the X large gantry plate which is about 125mm square and uses the larger wheel bearings.
Several people have used it and I started out with it, but it did not take long for us to switch over to a custom cut x large gantry.
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If you want to avoid using all that extruded aluminum then we are also still selling at cost our laser cut sled with under the sled vacuum. Laser cut accuracy so c beam, ring kit and router all line up exactly.
@krkeegan, sorry to necro an old thread, did you have any issues with your t-slot setup?