This is just a placeholder for the manual that we haven’t written yet. To keep this wiki clean, a discussion topic for organizing the manual can be found at Belt Maslow Manual Planning
1. Introduction
The belt Maslow (referred in shorthand as the M4) is a 4-motor variant of a large area 2.5D CNC router designed by Bar Smith, the original Maslow designer. It can be framed up to work in horizontal or vertical orientation or at some angle between. The key difference between the M4 and previous chain-based designs are:
- The sled is supported by 4 belts rather than 2 chains. This results in more positive control of the sled position. The 2-chain designs tend to have difficulty controlling sled position in the lower corners of the work area. The belts provide a more consistent positioning of the sled as compared to chains resulting in better repeatability in sled position. In addition, the 4 belts eliminate the dependence on gravity for X-Y positioning, meaning that the M4 design can be mounted vertically or horizontally
- X-Y positioning motors are mounted on the sled rather than the frame. This makes the M4 more compact and self-contained.
- When the belts are retracted, they are stored on spools built into the sled.. This allows the belts to be stored in the sled when the sled is not installed on the frame.