Whats up with prices on this?

No Judgement
1

Few issues so I’ll brake it down into 4 sections:

Where can I even buy this that isn’t grossly overpriced?

I wanted to buy this “cnc under $500” seems like a decent entry level, but I go to buy one and click the 399 site and they are sold out… I click the 549 one and… magically its 699 now?

$700 is nearly double the $400.

Than theres the new mk2 and its the same pricing issue? 1198 on site here but than you click it and its over $1500 now? May as well just build my own cnc at that point when you can buy a cnc controller kit for around $200.

I’m looking at the parts list here and honestly thats alot of money for a bunch of screws, few brackets and a couple motors.

I’m canadian so this may not matter paying double in the usa, but once we convert that over to canadian its nearly a million dollars due to our dollar being so weak so this is actually a decent investment now…

next issue:
2)
what exactly is the differences between the maslow and the mk2? I see what looks like the same thing and aside of claiming its better, its fairly vague as to how its doing this. Is it just better/upgraded motors? The sled looks the same as far as I can see it and its using the same chain and weighted system so I’m confused what could be worth $1500 here, much less $700 when the most expensive part here seems to be the pre programed arduino that functions as the cnc controller for this?

Is the software open source? Could I just build one of these myself with different parts since the software itself learns and corrects itself? In theory even if I used different motors or chains it would eventually learn how to be accurate with it due to corrections from tests?

Is the edge/corner issue fixed? I intend to use this to cnc cabinet panels that would be using the whole 4x8 and not being able to router the gaps I need near the corner or the dado edges/gaps near the corners is a deal braker for me.

Mainly interested in this for the price, but at $1500 I’m thinking a diy table lathe would be a better/cheaper option, so I’m really wondering how this can be justified for what seems to be very little hardware, a diy table would take more hardware but would cost less, something seems wrong with the pricing of this, seems to have lost sight of what the original goal was; a cheap cnc.

2

Yes! You can absolutely build your own. It’s 100% open source.

I agree. I was hoping that when I stopped selling kits competition would drive the price down, but somehow it’s gone up.

I’m working on a new version which uses four motors to fix the lower corner issues and which will hopefully be cheaper.

That being said it’s not done yet so at the moment the options which exist are the only options.

3 Likes
3

You where making the 399 kits?

I’m curious, do you have a text list of what the parts list is?

I’m curious if I can just grab most of this myself since I see alot of screws and bolts… how much of this is actually non-factory parts aside of the controller?

4

people have been making their own maslow machines before Bar shipped the first
kit. Everything is opensource.

the list of hardware is available on maslowcnc.com there are a couple parts that
are hard for an individual to get hold of

  1. there is a custom motor controller (actually several versions are out there,
    all fully open so you can build your own)

  2. the motors are sold from china in min quantities of 1000, some people have
    been able to find them elsewhere, the tricky thing is that the default motor
    controller struggles to supply 2a per motor, and the stock motors are right at
    that limit, and the stock motors are just barely powerful enough, so if you get
    motors that draw any more power, you need to use one of the alternate controller
    designs

  3. the ring needs to be rather precise, it’s laser cut steel, expensive in small
    quantities. There are other options (two different linkage kits (disclaimer, I
    sell one of them) that you can either make yourself or have made cheaper than
    the ring

lots of people have developed lots of options for how to make a maslow-type
machine work. There are now two different types of controllers with incompatible
software

  1. the original design uses dc motors
  2. there is one group shipping with stepper motors that uses different software
    as well as hardware

If you are interested in tracking down the parts and doing it yourself, you will
find lots of help around here, including lots of suggestions on how to improve
the original design, depending on what capabilities you have to buid stuff (your
skill level and shop equipment you have access to, including things like 3d
printers or laser cutters as well as traditional woodworking and machining
tools)

David Lang

5

I was, yeah. They might have even been cheaper than that. I think they were $350, but that was without a z-axis so I think that the $399 kits are quite comparable.

All the information needed to build your own is here: