Maslow CNC router

[thinfourth]

Well

What do you get if you take 2 nerds, some electronics, a router, 2 sheets of plywood and 2 house bricks?

http://www.tested.com/art/makers/612590-meet-maslow-350-cnc-cutting-machine/

http://www.maslowcnc.com

It is utter genuis

it can cut a 4x8 sheet while it is stood up

 

[WorkshopChris]

Good idea, but i imagine highly inaccurate and the biggest issue will be cutting full depth, may be ok for partial thickness cuts.
The program will need to use lots of tabs to hold smaller parts down.
One of the biggest issues with high end production cnc machines is work holding with the vacuum bed. (speaking from years of production cnc router experience)

 

[awemawson]

They say it is accurate to 1/64" in the middle and 1/16" at the extremes which is perfectly adequate for timber that expands and contracts that much anyway. The sword that he cut WAS full depth.

 

[julianthegypsy]

As he said, they're not looking at production work, but if it gets people into a shed, coding and mucking about for only $350 it has to be a good thing. Plus, as was also said, the whole thing is open source, which means all kinds of people will be coming up with clever mods and there will probably be a huge nerd community sharing tips and tricks.

 

[WorkshopChris]

Maybe I used the wrong words in my first post. I think it's a very good project, but while talking of its merits, I could find no mention of the big limitations.
It relies on the outside edges of the material, for location as soon as parts are cut close to a edges things will move.
As anyone who's has used a manual router on something like 19 mm birch plywood the forces required are huge.
I think it's good and like anything OS people will modify and improve, just feel it going to take a lot of work to get there.

 

[MrFluffy]

I was, and still might one day if I get my finger out, make a plasma table that stands up using the same mechanism (its a cross xy I believe) as the kinematics are supported by linuxcnc.
Most of the early problems were around the counterbalance, and redesigning the chains, originally it used bicycle chain and a massive counterbalance and large steppers as a result.

 

[WorkshopChris]

Should be a good build at least with the plasma you have no forces acting against the torch, compared to a router.