I intend to explore the possibility of using a ready made table top as a sled for my Maslow. The intent is something that could skip the temporary sled and be made along with the frame while people are waiting for their kits to arrive:
As with anything there are some trade-offs. The table round is the correct diameter and the edges are already rounded. It is thicker than the stock sled (1" vs. 3/4") limiting z-axis travel. That does, however, make it possible to use 3/4" screws to securly mount routers and triangulation kits directly to the surface.
I believe I’ve come up with a template system that can cut the center hole and possibly even a pocket to gain the lost 1/4" back. I need to draw it up to explain it better but the basic concept is to use an 11"x17" sheet of paper to locate the sled center and bolt holes. Then a thick, circular template gets located and placed on the paper template and screwed in. This thick template is pretty much a “donut” that the outside of the stock router base can ride on and cut the inner hole. A second donut can potentialy be added to pocket down the extra 1/4" should that prove necessary/beneficial…
I don’t own the R2200 router so bear with me as I ask for dimensions, etc!
Very interesting and practical idea. I always have great ideas and things working perfect in my head but then reality sets in. This would be a great way to get started. However, it’s showing this as unavailable online or 100 miles from me (which is like 20 stores). Maybe someone else has something similar.
I checked eBay and Amazon and keep being taken to this seller. Their direct site has all kinds of options:
Someone like @Bar with lots of machine time may need to enlighten the “diameter vs thickness” trade-space; though I do think the double donut can solve it as well.
Now I freely admit that at some point tracking a special table top down and shipping it stops making sense. I have the capability to laser cut a sled with an acrylic base and throw it in a flat-rate envelope as a kit if that were the case. The hope is to come up with something users can buy locally at low cost. With any luck this thread will answer which path is most feasible
Engrave concentric circles for router bases (pre cutting Ridgid mounting holes isn’t universal, alas) and material setup, and, say, 22.5° (made that up, non-optimal) radial lines for aligning one of the triangular kinematic kits. Thick enough acrylic and we could remove the factory base.
Around what do you think you could do those for, shipped in the states (plus option for elsewhere), with a reasonable pre-buy? I’m interested, although the 10’/3m snowbank in front of the barn door means I can’t try it for a couple more months so it would become a wall ornament for a while
The next image is what we would call an “eye chart” at my work for the eye-watering level of detail it contains (Haha! Office humor is great, amiright?! ). This drawing just shows how I got the offset necessary to size the “donut templates” later on:
Finally we end up with templates to use! The template on the right cuts the 1.5" diameter center hole and the template on the left cuts the 5.875" diameter pocket that drops the router down:
The templates themselves I will laser cut out of medium weight chipboard. Each sheet is ~2m thick so three of them will yield a nice ~1/4" thick template to guide the router base. The screw holes are sized for the “short wood screws” already provided in the Maslow kit.
Assembly Process:
Locate 11x17 sheet onto Table Round using curved corners as guides.
Tape down 11x17 sheet.
Stack the first three chipboard templates using the marks on the 11x17 template.
Screw down chipboard templates using screwdriver.
Either plunge the router down to make the center hole OR use a 1/4" drill bit.
Set router to a little over 1" depth and route the first 1.5" diameter hole.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 with larger diameter chipboard templates.
Set the router to approximately 1/4" depth (or as desired) and begin cutting the router pocket.
Drill holes for router mounting screws.
?
Profit.
The nice thing is that all these dimensions can be changed to accommodate different routers. Cut in half the templates will fit in a flat-rate USPS envelope. If the Maslow shipped with a bit it is would even be feasible to make the chipboard templates in quarters and ship them with the machine itself!
Having been bitten by that before, I couldn’t even tell you until I designed and built a prototype, unfortunately. That prototype would initially be designed for the R22002 (or some other specific router) for simplicity’s sake; trying to make a truly universal kit right off the bat is just asking for disappointed users in my experience.
@mooselake Since I’m starting to lean towards the completed sled direction, I went ahead and checked on material prices. The acrylic obviously adds quite a bit of expense… Does anyone know how much “better” an acrylic vs. MDF base is? Or more accurately, is it something people think is worth an extra $25?
I’m waiting for the new sled ring to go on sale before I try and install anything on it. I plan on printing the CAD file 1:1 and mounting everything according to the plans.
Any office printing store can print out plots for you and are surprisingly cheap. My 19" plan will fit on Arch D size paper and office depot will print it for me for 3.39 + tax.
The through hole and counterbore sizes have been added for the bricks, R22002 router, and the @pillagethenburn kit. Still need to add the new ring mount dimensions and the pantograph mounts. @dlang Can you confirm if the mounting holes on the dxf in the community garden sled section is correct for your kit? I couldn’t find instructions for yours anywhere…
I checked both Lowe’s and Home Depot yesterday and confirmed that the table rounds at both stores are identical. I tried to take a picture showing the side of the table round and you can see that the bottom surface still has a bit of an edge to it. Nothing a little sandpaper wouldn’t fix but just thought I’d share.
Thanks! I found the layout drawings as well, since it seems I searched within the sled modification thread instead of all threads. I admit to failing the internet today Metal Top Pantograph kit available
). This drawing just shows how I got the offset necessary to size the “donut templates” later on:
