I’m far from a “super user”… but I have successfully completed multiple projects with good results. Full disclosure: it’s been a big learning curve for me.
When I first received the M4 about a year ago I thought it would be more of a “plug and play” type of tool. I was able to make some good cuts pretty quickly after putting the machine together, but it has been more difficult and time consuming than expected to complete projects. In all fairness @bar has been very honest about the fact that the Maslow 4 is an open source community driven project for makers who like to tinker, build and problem solve. By and large it does work out of the box, but not in the same way as a tool you would buy from a big box store. The community in the forums is the secret sauce. Thanks to many creative and helpful people here, I’ve been able to slowly gain confidence and been inspired to keep experimenting and learning.
After a particularly frustrating result while working on my most recent project I was almost ready to give up. I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, the M4 may not save me time the way that I thought it would, but it does allow me to try things that otherwise I wouldn’t have attempted. For every post here about troubleshooting, there is another post showing what is possible when you finally get it (mostly) all figured out.
I started to look for some of the projects that were most inspiring to me…and there’s so many, here are two worth checking out:
@MrN808 has many posts showcasing some very ambitious projects
@Hughmama posted about an amazing project, with over 100 hours of successful cutting
There is another huge project I remember seeing where someone successfully cut dozens (maybe even 50 or more) of sheets of ply. People are making amazing things with M4 and it only keeps getting better as the DIY community of CNC enthusiasts here continues to discover ways to make the M4 better.