Is there any reason Plunge Routers aren’t recommended for the Maslow?
Is anyone using a Plunge Router for their Maslow?
I was surprised too see that conventional routers are recommended for the Maslow as many of the height adjustment / router body clamping mechanisms aren’t designed for repetitive rigid movement.
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This has been discussed pretty thouroughly in the forum. A natural question with a pretty clear answer.
because very few plunge routers have a depth adjustement that can be motorized
to adjust the router height. They usually have a depth stop that limits how deep
the router can go, but the router is free to move between there and max height
(and spring loaded to move away from the workpiece)
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but there are some finished z achses that would be the job easy china z-achse
a big plus for cnc routers is the low price 500W 80 $
and that they are much quieter.
ou just realiced what you ment im talking about a professional cnc spindel
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the 2.5HP routers are ~1400W, significantly more powerful (which may or may not
matter, but don’t think that they are equivalent)
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The 500W spindle you linked to is 220V only, difficult (but not impossible) for those of us in the states. They work well for smaller hobby CNC machines like the Shapoko and X Carve. Reportedly lots quieter than a full size router. I wonder how well they’d cut with 1/8" bits?
I have a similar sized, although different design, Paul Jones spindle on my Zenbot mini, which would comfortably cut at higher speeds than we’ve been using with the Maslow. It was only 6 x 8 inches, not 4 x 8 feet. The base hardware was belt driven, and for grins I was cutting styrofoam at (an indicated) 600 ipm without any problems. For plywood (from my precisebits.com style tests) I used 20-25 ipm, 0.125" DOC, with 1/8" endmills. In those days I was a lot less aware of how speed and acceleration interacted, but the 3 belt driven axis were darned quick. I was controlled by LinuxCNC, the computer and controller board alone cost more than a Maslow.
I did lithophanes with 0.042 and 0.033 inch ball nose end mills (60ipm, 0.03DOC roughing, 100 ipm finishing per my notebook), which were pretty easy to break. 1/16 through 1/8 for cutting plywood.
It dropped the bit when the power was turned off so it had a block of foam to stick underneath the spindle to avoid breaking the bit when powering it down. Not a suitable design for a Maslow, the sled would have fallen to the floor every time it was turned off
it would be interesting to see how that 500W desktop router spindle performs on a maslow.
And how it compares to a 500Watt bosch makita dewalt metabo hitachi If any exist in the 500W power range, I’m sure there are, but the mainline models seem to be in the 1000W range.
Maybe we could do a ranting topic on the various available models to give future users an idea what features are ideal, and what are less deal for Maslow. Though, the wiki already explains a lot.
I think it could be good to have a discussion on ‘every’ router out there just to gain more insight in the challenges they present us to get them up and running on a Maslow.
Also to find potentioal alternatives to the somewhat expensive AEG and RIGID models
I would like to find a more compact spindle, and from that point of view the 500W $80 china spindle seems very interesting,
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Total Noob here, awaiting the arrival of my Maslow and trying to find a budget router to start out with. I have the Ryobi RE1200 within reach, but apparently, it’s a plunge router. However after reading through this thread, I found another thread elsewhere where someone who needed more control over the height adjustment, was able to disable the spring mechanism in the Ryobi RE1200. Does anyone think this can work? Also any other objections to using the Ryobi RE1200 with Maslow? Thanks.
the key is having a router that you can control the height of by rotating
something, if you can make that work, you can use the router 
now, there are features that make it easier or harder to use a particular
router, ideally you want a threaded rod that you can attach a motor to in a way
that the motor doesn’t have to move up and down as the adjustments are being
make.
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From what I understand, that thing that you need to rotate to control the height, is linked to a spring mechanism that seems to counteract the control you are trying to gain, I thought the link in my previous post might offer an idea for disabling this spring mechanism, to give you better control. Then again, I might be talking utter rubbish. I found an instructable that also addresses hacking a plunge router to gain better control over height adjustment. I’m hoping this proves somewhat applicable when I finally get my hands on the kit.
There are many Router mods scattered all over the web.
Woodworker use all kinds of routers for DIY router tables. This basically all evolves around the same principles and issues… I have spotted LOTS of mods but i can’t really tell if they are any good for Maslow use, as i don’t have a Maslow yet.
Maybe we could make a thread and collect all the options out there? Just to have a little repository of ‘idea’s that could work somehow’ And do a few brainbattles from there. 
Sure that would help, especially for those like me who’re not able to shell out on a Ridgid immediately but would like to start right away with something.