I’ve wanted one of these for some time, and think I may get one for myself this year for my birthday… Particularly because I now see it can operate on the floor, so I wouldnt need to build an easel.
I’d be using it on my garage floor on the frame, since I can’t drill into the floor or walls.
Anyway, here are a few questions I couldn’t quite answer in looking around - probably there somewhere…
how much waste is there? I see some connected to a shop-vac, but wouldn’t necessarily want that running for a long time. Any other ways it can be handled?
What are the specs on cutting and tolerances? In other words, what are the smallest cuts and corners I can make, and the largest bit size, and speeds? Shallowest / Deepest? I’m not in a hurry, but don’t want to wait forever, and don’t want to break bits.
I have a few different programs that might work for design - Illustrator and Rhino among them. Before buying the Maslow, is there a way for me to design and test/simulate whatever the results would be? I don’t know much about CNC software.
I’d be using it on my garage floor on the frame, since I can’t drill into the floor or walls.
Anyway, here are a few questions I couldn’t quite answer in looking around - probably there somewhere…
how much waste is there? I see some connected to a shop-vac, but wouldn’t necessarily want that running for a long time. Any other ways it can be handled?
it depends what size bit you use, a bigger bit will produce more waste)
What are the specs on cutting and tolerances? In other words, what are the
smallest cuts and corners I can make, and the largest bit size, and speeds?
Shallowest / Deepest? I’m not in a hurry, but don’t want to wait forever, and
don’t want to break bits.
we don’t have good info on this, other than the max speed the machine can move
is ~2000mm/min this is a fairly slow machine. most of the rest of it will
require experimentation
I have a few different programs that might work for design - Illustrator
and Rhino among them. Before buying the Maslow, is there a way for me to
design and test/simulate whatever the results would be? I don’t know much
about CNC software.
yes and no, there are gcode simulators that will show you how you have
instructed the machine to move, and CAD/CAM systems will show you the predicted
results. But the reality of cutting is that different materials cut differently,
and it’s a matter of trying to figure out the parameters. but the simulators are
fairly good at estimating how long it will take (they tend to be optimistic, but
it gets you a ballpark(
Can I safely cut anything other than wood?
you can cut any material you could cut with a handheld router (really all that
the maslow is is a small trim router that is moved around by the belts rather
than your hands)
we’ve had people do plastics and aluminum that I know of.
Here are my piles of dust from a sheet of particle board cut into a bunch of polygons. I would not want to do this in an enclosed space without some form of dust control. Since you should never leave a CNC alone while running ( fire) I could see vacuuming or sweeping by hand every few minutes.
In my limited testing The maslow was really precise but not necessarily accurate. I cut this sign for a friend in multiple passes and tried to cut and then chamfer the sides. after a tool change the chamfer was off by about a mm or two but the sign cut in one go with 6 passes on a V pointy blade looked great and very crisp. Look through the projects and what have you been cutting forum for ideas of what is possible.
Particularly because I now see it can operate on the floor, so I wouldnt need to build an easel.
