I’m a cnc machinist and I recently met one of your super users here in Kentucky oddly enough when I bought a 1970’s dune buggy body from her. Pretty neat setup.
Neat design! Was great getting to meet you guys at Open Sauce 2023 and see Maslow 4 up close. I was mostly hanging out with Ryan at V1 Engineering. Best of luck with kickstarter and getting to production, look forward to seeing these machines having an impact for good causes. Cheers!
Love this format. Sounds like this may not have the accuracy of a CNC table, but those can be $10,000 and up. At just over $525 US, this is a fantastic price!
I just want to say that your weekly Kickstarter update emails are excellent. I really enjoy reading them every week, it's an amazing view in to the project. ❤
Thanks for reading them! It feels good knowing that people care to follow along. That being said, the real fun starts once we get machines in everyone's hands and conversation can be less one directional with everyone getting to collaborate in the forums
I have been rabidly following this project from the start. One thing sorely missing is more project videos and detailed project galleries. The project well communicates the imperfections, but I want to see those imperfect results AND get tips for mitigating them. By that I mean, building of a CNC storage shed, holding up for display the structural parts and showing how they almost line up. Then what is done next. There’s enough show and tell recorded, but not as much recorded about the processes and workflow. This comment is more for the community than for Maslow itself. Please energize, inspire, and educate us folk who have been spectators for 7 years.
We're doing our best to work on getting more projects built. It's tricky to find the right balance between spending time on projects vs spending time on getting kits out to our KS backers (obviously they are the priority). We will do as many project videos as we can and as soon as the community has kits in hand I am sure we will see an explosion of project content
Fully funded already - Awesome ! Just goes to show what a couple of previously successful Kickstarter campaigns under their belt will do for a campaign. (compared to sooo many failed one-time Kickstarter projects)
Congrats! Looks like I have to help kickstart Maslow for the second time 🙂After 2 routers I changed Maslow 1 to a spindle and the noise reduction and speed control does not let me go back. Will be back in the forum soon to ask about it. Greetings from melting hot Bahrain, Gero.
Wait, this is THE Gero?!? Literally the last thing I thought before signing off last night was "If I can get Gero back then it will really be a success". We've missed you!
Please do support the Makita trimmer. Dewalt doesn’t produce the trimmer/router your are talking about for many markets in the world (Australia being an example). Here we can only get the cordless version which has its own issue being just being battery powered.
I have noted elsewhere you said these run too hot. I’ve run a couple of these in CNCs for years in a shed that’s regularly over 40C and there is only one circumstance they get really hot and that’s if the airflow is impeded. I tried one with a bad dust shoe design but know I now it’s entry to duct that air away and they keep cool.
NICELY DONE! I have a few questions, if you don't mind. - How do you calibrate it? - Is it required to square and precisely measure the distance between the anchors in order to calibrate it? - How precise are the cuts compared to the older ones? - Did you stress-test the plastic parts for longevity? - Can it cut precisely over the entire surface (unlike the older one)?
Excellent questions. It self calibrates by taking a bunch of measurements by pulling the belts tight and then it uses that information to compute where the anchor points are. They do not have to be precise or even in a square or rectangle pattern. You don't measure anything by hand. The cuts are quite a bit more precise than the original one, especially near the edges of the sheet. Near the center of the sheet it's about the same, but near the edges the extra force from the lower belts makes a big difference. The production version will be made from Delrin so it should be more durable than the prototype, but even on the prototype I've probably got over a hundred hours of cutting with no issues so far. Re: cutting over the whole sheet you are still going to get the best performance in the middle, but the performance across the whole sheet is WAY improved
@@maslowcnc WOW, interesting. I imagine that the angle at which the belts exit the sled, not only their lengths, will affect how many encoder steps are needed for movement..right? - Are the angles also determined by stall current detection? - Is it realistic to say that precision is roughly 1mm across the board? - Will heat from the router cause the Delrin to deform? Sorry, I have so many questions. I'm trying to persuade myself that I need this upgrade
@@TM-529these are excellent questions and help me decide if this is something I should invest in. @maslowcnc no one is asking for "perfection" just clarity.
"Sir, would you like to avoid putting a 4x8 CNC table in your shop? Well, have I got something for you! Just install this 10 x 10 metal frame, semi-upright in the middle of your garage and then tie ropes to it!! Progress!" LOL Guys......
i think its agreat add to what you have in your mind getting into reality , some of the questions here are almost offensive in origin . You can get just so much accuracy in a design as what we call "state of the art" . For the time being and nobody builds wooden rockets or ultra submarines this accuracy is going to be fine.
Thanks! I'm pretty used to it. I think a lot of people with very expensive machines get upset at the idea of everyone having one, but at the end of the day the only thing I can really do is to build the best machine I can and let it speak for itself.
I'd like to see more how it works. Still DC motors with gearbox, but 4 drive motors? No bike chain. So you moved all the motors to the end effector. I guess the motors are encoded. Very cool.
I'll do a more detailed technical video soon, but basically you got it! The encoder isn't actually in the motor, it's tracking a roller that engages with the gear teeth. It's more precise that way because it's measuring the actual belt, not the movement of the motor which would be effected by how much belt is on the spools. There's a little bit more detail here, but a video to explain it all is in the works: www.maslowcnc.com/about-maslow4
Does it have to be a Dewalt Router? I know in early iterations you guys were recommending Ridgid I believe...It was an orange topped variable speed router. When I bought a wood router, I made sure to get the one recommended in case I ever was able to afford a Maslow to put it in.
Yes and no. We're hoping to support the Maktia trim router that is a similar size, and maybe a spindle of some sort, but the Rigid router is unfortunately a little too big. The extra weight of the Rigid was an asset when we were using it to provide the downwards force, but now that we have belts for that a lighter router is better.
Know someone who had one of these and honestly, he threw it away and got a real router. This thing was slow, and it tended to bounce around when it hit any kind of knot. Wouldn't recommend.
Does the vac hose cause the thing to twist slightly? It looks like some of the straight lines aren't super straight, and a few of the curves don't appear to be as smooth as you might want. I understand that the low barrier to entry and the small footprint are going to have some trade offs, so i'm not trying to be overly critical. I just want to know what the limitations truly are. I'll have to go through your other videos... I built an MPCNC lowrider, but was unhappy about how much space it was taking up and a lack of rigidity (to be expected). Maslow can clearly address one of those issues, thought it might require more post processing. Anyway - looks like you guys easily blasted past your goals - nice work! Good luck.
I would like more information on how you interface with this device. I purchased the first one and ended up having to give it away. Had a tremendous trouble with the app and Web app functioning correctly.
Good question. Its a bit like when you connect to the wifi at the airport or the library or somewhere like that and you get that "login" window that pops up. Basically as soon as you connect to the wifi access point and open a web browser it will take you to the controls. It will work the same on any browser and any computer.
I personally know two people that had the same result with the first version. I honestly couldn't beleive the last version was even a thing until I had a couple people ask me to cut the sled on my Queenbee. I was like "you have to cut the sled out with a cnc?!" The two guys I know did it to save a few hundred over a ~1500$ setup and never were able to get their Maslows going. It's great to see they improved the design but the use case for this is perhaps a bit too specific, I like versatility in equipment
@@redherring5532 The first version shipped with windows software to control it. (groundcontrol) Like most CNC machines, you load the gcode that you create elsewhere and send it to the machine. There were times when this was hard to run due to libraries not working on new OS versions, but someone built a new version a year or so ago, so it's usable again. later on, a user created a web based replacement for that windows software in python (webcontrol) , so it could run on anything, and the recommended approach is to use a raspberry pi or similar to run it on and then access it via a browser. you still create the gcode elsewhere. There were a couple people who created and sold kits after the initial couple of rounds, and then one of those teams decided to do a major update, and made a different version of software for their machine that wasn't compatible with the normal machines, and their own software to drive it. They have since extended that software so it can control both types of machines, and released it open source, but their support is all via facebook and has fragmented the community a bit. The new version is using a forked version of fluidNC running on a custom ESP32 board that also controls all the motors (forked because this machine has non-standard kinematics, the intent is to merge the fork back upstream). you still create the gcode elsewhere, and as I noted above and access it via a browser. did the people who gave up ask for help on the maslow forums? there is a very extensive community there that is very helpful. (we even try to help with the m2 machines, but we have far less info on them)
Kickback seems to be more of a human thing than a machine thing...it ends up not really happening for robots. Stretch in the lines is a thing though. The reinforced belts we're using actually stretch less than the chains we were using before, but there is still some stretch and we compensate for that in software
That's an interesting idea. I actually don't have an original Maslow set up anymore, but I'm betting that someone will film a side by side as soon as we start shipping
@maslowcnc send me one and I will. I have mine still set up and use it periodically. Bet if we show first hand the difference between and how much faster it is vs the maslow / makerverse one that would get some sales going. Biggest problem I have is the time
This is amazing, will there be any kind of Maslow OG upgrade kit available in the future? It doesn't look like it uses much OG parts, maybe just the stand?
Unfortunately it's a complete redesign so no shared parts with the original in terms of electronics or the sled, but the stand from the original will work great.
@Maslow CNC: I'm trying to pledge for the Maslow4 Full Kit Batch #3 but the pledge button just shows a little prohibited sign. Any thoughts on what might be going on? (I can't comment on the Kickstarter page itself because one needs to be a backer first). Thanks!
We're currently sold out. We're focused 100% on delivering to our Kickstarter backers, but we will open general sales again once we are able to. If you sign up for the email list on our website we'll send out an email once sales are open again.
Ok I have never had room for one. But would love to have. BUT have really big questions. Instead of router. I would like to use a plasma cutter. Has anyone done this? Can you do this? Will it work. Someone need to try I wish I could
can you make a batch that is shipped from mainland Europe for our Europeans? i don't mind the shipping cost, but import duty is otherwise going to be way to much. thanks,
To what extent can this do 2.5D stuff? I'm assuming machine contouring is out the question as the board needs to stay reasonably flat, but can it mill pockets etc. or is it strictly 2D?
hi! i seen on the kickstarter page that the tolerance is +-.5mm. is it compared to the maximum length of the routing surface? how does it compare to usual routing (horizontal) tables? would it be precise enough to route a guitar fretboard with fret slots?
It's quite a bit lower. Shopbot for example claims 0.0762mm tolerances...but it's also $20k...but we're not really trying to compete with those machines, we're trying to be substantially better than doing it by hand. I don't think I'd really recommend Maslow for doing a guitar fret board.
Question: It appears you are using Planetary gearboxes now rather than Worm gear. Does it "drop" or lose position when power stops to the motors? Worm gears cant be back driven.. Thanks!
Great question! Yes and no. The power is off to the motors when I am standing in front of it in this video so it doesn't like drop to the floor, but the belts do de-tension slightly. If you powered off the motors while cutting it would leave a little mark, but it doesn't move more than a mm. The position isn't lost because the encoders are tracking the belt movements so when you power the motors back on they resume. The big advantage of the planetary gearboxes is that because there are more teeth engaged at the same time they can handle the torque better and last longer. The worm drive gearboxes lasted quite a while, but they did wear out.
@@maslowcnc NICELY DONE! it looks impressive! I have a few questions, if you don't mind - Is it required to square and precisely measure the distance between the anchors in order to calibrate it? - How precise are the cuts compared to the older ones? - Did you stress-test the plastic parts for longevity? - Can it cut precisely over the entire surface (unlike the older one)? Thank you.
Isn't the accuracy and quality of the cut entirely dependent on the solidity and foundation of the actual tool? I know CNC's are near worthless if they move around a bit and can't hold a zero on measurements. Would like to see how this is addressed outside of a perfect setup. Especially if you're cutting difficult/solid wood, I wouldn't trust something like that to maintain perfect lines and such, not just hanging by string/wire. For the price of this I can get a pretty decent used router with a lot more functionality. Especially if someone has that much garage space available, they probably can afford and want a more reliable, faster and longer lasting tool.
This is so very exciting. Too bad its kickstarter again. I know your company is always honest and delivers as promised. Kickstarter as a company overall is bad and I cannot support them. I hope one day I can buy one in a proper shop.
We will work to make that happen! I largely share your feelings about kickstarter...although when it works the way its supposed to it can be pretty cool
We would have to add another motor to angle the blade in the right direction, but the controller board has an AUX connector we could use for that...although we wouldn't need the stepper motors for the z-axis then so we could use one of them. How would the wood be supported so that the blade could cut through without hitting something? It's a cool idea...if you want to build it I'm here to help
That was one of the most common questions with the first version. Literally nothing at all happens :p...I've cut steel screws in the frame and not noticed until after the cut was done
Can I trade in my M 2 for a discount on the M4 because the M2 I bought is a bunch of crap I can’t get it to work to this date and I haven’t even used it
The M2 is sold by a completely different company that we have no relationship with. We keep asking them to stop using our name, but they aren't doing it. We have literally no connection to them at all.
We're currently sold out. We're focused 100% on delivering to our Kickstarter backers, but we will open general sales again once we are able to. If you sign up for the email list on our website we'll send out an email once sales are open again.
There are only three axis of motion when cutting (XYZ) but the controller board has 5 independent axis (Each belt + Z axis). Powerful computers are getting cheaper so we're trading more complexity on the control side for cheaper mechanical parts
Sorry about that! We're actually a totally unrelated company from MakerMade. They sell a copy of my old design, but we are not connected to them in any way.
It's mostly an issue of cost. It's much cheaper to use belts under tension than it is to build a steel gantry that is rigid. It's also quite a bit smaller in an upright configuration than a regular table CNC. It's not for everyone though and it sounds like it might not be for you.
