So many questions

[kylevanhorn]

Hello - Long time listener, first time caller. I’ve been a fan for years. Now, with the 4-point anchor system cutting flat on the ground, this finally feels possible to me. My tiny garage workshop can’t fit an upright frame, but… I have a driveway!

I have many “what if”, “how difficult is it”, and “how precise” style questions to ask, and I’ll gladly take anyone’s experience or input.

I have a long-ish, flat-ish driveway, which slopes down to the alley. I already build and sell equipment which I outsource the CNC work on. Currently I send it through a local company or cut it at the school where I work. In spite of all of that, I am thinking I would like to add 4 anchor points to my concrete alley for occasional light-production, prototyping, and one-off builds, either to save money, or save the time of my colleagues who might have better things to do than help with my non-school related projects.

SO - The first question is set-up time. If I had prepped files, a sheet of ply and a foam backer, and at least one or two bars of wifi signal, how quickly can I go from an empty driveway to annoying my neighbors on a Saturday morning with the sound of a router? Working outside means a full setup and teardown with every build, and being at the mercy of the weather. I like to pretend I have time to do big projects, but in reality I have a handful of small bits of time I can slowly work through ideas on. If this is a 1-hour setup and 30-minute teardown, I’m already out of time.

My next question has everything to do with accuracy. My builds aren’t overly elaborate, but they are somewhat technical. They involve some or many pieces which all align, fit together with dadoes or rabbets, and all with pretty tight tolerances in 18mm birch ply. Am I asking for trouble with my expensive ply and inexperience? Reading through the forums some, I’ve familiarized myself with Z-offsets and skewed belts, plywood moving, etc. These are all things I can account for. But if the center of my sheet cuts accurately, and the corners are skewed or trapezoidal, that’s a dealbreaker. I usually cut full 4x8 sheets, and pack my pieces in tight, so I need a good degree of precision. I am expecting to have bridges on all the pieces and still follow up with a fair amount of hand-work.

Next, Tool Changing. Ideally I’d like to drill a bevy of 1/8” pilot holes, and then follow up with a 1/4” bit to cut dadoes and profiles. Is this possible? Should I plan instead to give myself shallow 1/8” drill marks and follow up by hand later?

Finally (not true, I’ll have more questions later) - Can accuracy be increased by extending or changing the placement of the belt anchors? The Concrete Floor Guide recommends 8’x12’ corner anchors. Is there a benefit extending that or changing the 2:3 ratio?

Below are 2 screenshots from Fusion, one of a full build of a flat press platen, and the other stripped down to just a few parts to show where the complications lie. This piece is 20x30” outer dimensions, and collectively it uses most or all of a 4x8’ sheet.

Apologies finally if this is in the wrong forum topic. I couldn’t decide on the right home for these questions.

Thanks all!

[teshdor]

I own one and I really wouldn’t recommend one for you. This isn’t some precision instrument that you can set up and get repeatable results. On the tool to toy scale it’s heavily skewed to the toy side and you really need a good repeatable flat surface to get everything dialed in and then you still need to do the babysitting. Not to mention while your neighbors might be ok with the odd job in the driveway, it’s still a regular wood router and it’s loud and on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood you are going to have it on for hours. They won’t appreciate that. If you don’t have the dedicated space for at least the vertical setup and some dust extraction, in a semi dedicated space, move on. This device is NOT for you.

[Paul_Langard]

Going from a wooden frame to concrete anchors has done a lot for me precision wise, and I would say it’s very repeatable and pretty tolerant (my garage floor is not perfect)

Seeing the work that has been done by some people is the best way to know if you can produce what you are looking for, Bar’s recent van built or sauna attempt for example. But it’s a journey to get there I think.

set-up time is pretty fast I’m using the 4 anchors setup and i’d say it takes me about 5-10 min to be ready to cut, about the same for teardown (mostly due to cleaning up), and the machine can be stored in a box…

for this price, a machine that takes virtually no space, can cut 4x8 sheets was a no brainer for me. (I would simply not have a CNC)
Looking back 5 months ago, I was considering selling it, I’m certainly happy I did not.

[Aggie.wes]

I agree that this is definitely a Hobbyist “toy” more than a production machine. It’s described and priced as such.

I would also say that your use case is one of the main use cases this was designed for. To be able to take basically any flat space, put in anchors and start cutting. Yes, it’s loud, but the sound doesn’t carry too much and if you are respectful with when you use it, you’ll be fine.

As to your other questions, setup is quick, I agree with 10 minutes for set up and probably less for teardown. You can stop the machine, change bits, reset your Z height and get back to cutting. I’ve done it it multiple times. That said, it’s not always successful and there is a lot of turning the machine off, re-extending belts and restarting. If you are willing to go through some of that hassle, it’s a good machine for what it is.

[kylevanhorn]

Thank you all for the feedback! @teshdor @Paul_Langard and @Aggie.wes. I already probably annoy some neighbors with the regular router and sander use in my back yard, but so do a bunch of other neighbors, so maybe it evens out.

I understand all the concerns, and I’m not scared off from it yet. I welcome anyone else’s experience and input as well.

Cheers!

[bar]

I’m obviously biased, but I think that your use case is exactly the kind of thing that we aspire for Maslow to be perfect for…but there are still a lot of kinks to work out.

I’d say if you are excited about the idea of being part of developing a whole new kind of CNC router then Maslow at this point is fantastic. If you are looking for a tool that doesn’t require any fiddling then it’s not for you. As the description says at checkout:

“You should buy this if you are excited about the idea of building a robot and being an early adopter. This is still very much a new technology it still requires a fair amount of fiddling to work well.”

Our dream is that we can pioneer this technology to the point that it takes off like 3D printing (tons of different companies making different designs). Hopefully someday we’ll be able to walk into home depot and pick from a bunch of different brands of CNC routers in the same way that we can pick from a bunch of different brands of jig saws, but we’re not there yet

We are making good progress though!

[kylevanhorn]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, @bar. I’m familiar with the world of self-builds, tinkering, and troubleshooting. I don’t have experience on the programming side of things, and I start to glaze over, looking at set-up and calibration numbers. But I’m seeing a supportive community and a strong desire to improve the end-user functionality for us non-engineering folk. I’m going to continue to haunt the forums, but I appreciate everyone’s input.