Reviews of various kits?

No Judgement
1

Is there a listing somewhere of reviews of all the different kits, like the original kit, the blue made Maslow kit, and metal Maslow kit? Is there any more options?

2

I can tell you that EastBaySource is a great kit. They are super fast to get your machine to you, and are very pleasant to deal with.

I can also say that MetalMaslow sled is quality made stuff. I got the sled upgrade and was sent some wrong parts, but he has went out of his way to get the right stuff to me, and to help me get my z-axis upgrade up and running. A little slow to ship, but worth the wait.

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3

Thanks! MetalMaslow is my preference right now. Is the z-axis motor quite a bit faster? worth the upgrade? I have to ship to Canada, so most likely I would go all in or not at all, as shipping is so expensive.

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4

Itā€™s only supposed to be like 4x faster than the stock, if I recall correctly, but just from sitting here watching it right now, itā€™s night and day from stock. Moves quite quickly, cutting tabs is a breeze right now, and I canā€™t imagine how much more improved my drilling programs are going to be. I definitely wouldnā€™t hesitate to get this kit. As sturdy as the sled is, it will out live me LOL

5

Iā€™m in the same boat in trying to understand what these options (itā€™s great to have options!) have to offer. My use will be cutting parts for outdoor lawn furniture, chairs for a dock and deck, and utility furniture for the garage/shop.

My brother-in-law is deep into CNC, his latest purchase a full-blown 4x8 CNC with vacuum hold downs. His work is incredible, but I donā€™t need to do fancy v-carved signage or high-end furniture. All Iā€™m looking for is something to accurately cut sheet goods, and perhaps softwood boards in pine or poplar.

So here are a few questions.

  1. Right now Iā€™m leaning to the metal maslow with the faster z-axis. But I see there is a new sled design due out in the next few months. Will this be worth waiting for?

  2. Is realistic to think that I could cut out parts sufficiently accurate for outdoor furniture like, say, Adirondack chairs?

  3. My garage/shop is separate, without solid wifi connection back to the main house/cabin. Will this be a problem for webcontrol?

6
  1. Right now Iā€™m leaning to the metal maslow with the faster z-axis. But I see there is a new sled design due out in the next few months. Will this be worth waiting for?

I donā€™t know about this specific sled, but there will always be something new
ā€˜soonā€™ :slight_smile:

  1. Is realistic to think that I could cut out parts sufficiently accurate for outdoor furniture like, say, Adirondack chairs?

yes

  1. My garage/shop is separate, without solid wifi connection back to the main house/cabin. Will this be a problem for webcontrol?

no. Webcontrol does not need to get to the Internet.

there are a couple options being worked on (Iā€™ve lost track of the status)

  1. you can always run an AP in your shop, connect the pi and whatever you use as
    your browser to the AP

  2. there is work being done to let the Pi act as an AP for stand-alone
    operation like you are talking about.

David Lang

7
  1. std z axis pitch is 3 (mm per revolution). The metal maslow pitch is 8 and the meticulous z, if built with a 3:1 belt drive is 24. Faster z is way better. The belt broke one time and it went from 24 to 8 and it was noticeably slower. There are lots of options. The meticulous z plans are out. $30 for the slides. $15 for the gears and belts and you provide the wood and screws. I tried to cover some of the options at least in pictures on the ā€œMaslow Manualā€ in the wiki. If you look over the forum, metalmaslow has posted links to the parts he provides if you want to just buy the kit on your own.

Looks like dlang covered the rest. Shoot a message if you get hung up on any of it.

8

Thanks to both you and dlang! Iā€™m still working my way through the various materials out there, and had not spent enough time with the wiki. Very helpful indeed.

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