A free CNC for your team!

[MaslowCNC]

Hey Everyone!

My name's Hannah Teagle and I'm a cofounder of Maslow CNC. We launched on Kickstarter about a week ago and have already quadrupled our goal!

Basically, Maslow is an open source 4x8 foot CNC machine. As a team, we decided that for every 20 we sell, we want to donate one to an educational institution! A FIRST team in Ohio has already won one, and their contact directed me here to spread the word so that we can get more Maslows into the hands of more young people who would actually use it!

So, if you're interested, please head to www.maslowcnc.com/nominate to get more details and nominate your school to win a Maslow. From there you'll receive a confirmation email and instructions on how to spread the word in order to win.

Thanks for your time everyone!

[MARS_James]

So this wouldn't really be a CNC for our team, but for our school. Also if we are not located at a school we can not apply correct?

[Eric Scheuing]

Looks like a cool idea! Do you have information on what kind of tolerances it can hold and what materials other than wood it can be sued for?

[mastachyra]

Great cheap solution to CNC! We signed up. I can see alot of potential for prototyping with this.

Thanks for the opportunity!

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by Eric Scheuing

Looks like a cool idea! Do you have information on what kind of tolerances it can hold and what materials other than wood it can be sued for?

Says in the Kickstarter +- 1/64" or +-0.0156". Hard to say what else besides wood and plastic it could cut, I seriously doubt it could handle any aluminum other than really thin sheet metal if at all.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by RoboChair

Says in the Kickstarter +- 1/64" or +-0.0156". Hard to say what else besides wood and plastic it could cut, I seriously doubt it could handle any aluminum other than really thin sheet metal if at all.

Considering that the Maslow is only the CNC portion, it looks like you can use whatever router you have. I don't know much about routers, but I've seen on here that some routers can be modified to handle aluminum. Might be interesting.

[sanddrag]

Let me make sure I understand how this machine works, it counteracts the cutting forces with bricks?

I mean, I wouldn't mind having one of these to draw pictures on my Expo dry erase board, but for cutting plywood I think I'll stick with my gantry router.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

Considering that the Maslow is only the CNC portion, it looks like you can use whatever router you have. I don't know much about routers, but I've seen on here that some routers can be modified to handle aluminum. Might be interesting.

It doesn't matter what router your using as a spindle no way will it cut aluminium in any meaningful way. This CNC doesn't even have a Z axis. On an xcarve a .008" doc for aluminium is normal. If this machine was even close to as capable as an Xcarve (which it is not) you would have to adjust the router 32 times to cut through 1/4" aluminium! Adjusting a router in it's mount at .008" increments isn't even possible.

Honestly I think the Maslow CNC is junk even for fun art projects, the design is shoddy and it's just too dangerous for a school enviroment. If the machine were to run into endstop (which happens all the time when you are learning) the router could fall off and cut you to bits. It's also far too slow to get a decent surface finish.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Eric Scheuing

Looks like a cool idea! Do you have information on what kind of tolerances it can hold and what materials other than wood it can be sued for?

What you can cut depends on the router, but even with two (!) clay bricks, the downforce really isn't enough to cut heavy (1/8") aluminum. If metal is in your plans, this isn't the machine for you. Wood, plastic, etc - all OK.

Originally Posted by mman1506

Honestly I think the Maslow CNC is junk even for fun art projects, the design is shoddy and it's just too dangerous for a school enviroment. If the machine were to run into endstop (which happens all the time when you are learning) the router could fall off and cut you to bits. It's also far too slow to get a decent surface finish.[/url]

I respectfully disagree. While we're not talking about any miracles in machining here, for what it is, it'll cut out a nice set of wooden reindeer for the front lawn with little fuss. But I think your hidden message is: Don't expect it to work like a $10k mill, it's just a wood router on some strings. Got it.

Endstops: You should look into these thingies called "limit switches".

[Taylor]

OP: Hey we want to do something nice for you guys!
CD: No, your assistance is not welcome here. In fact, we will go so far as to say your offered assistance is, and I quote, "junk."

I respectfully request that some authors think about what you're posting and what the repercussions may be. It doesn't hurt to be diplomatic, humble, perhaps even grateful, even if the offered help isn't for you.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Taylor

OP: Hey we want to do something nice for you guys!
CD: No, your assistance is not welcome here. In fact, we will go so far as to say your offered assistance is, and I quote, "junk."

I respectfully request that some authors think about what you're posting and what the repercussions may be. It doesn't hurt to be diplomatic, humble, perhaps even grateful, even if the offered help isn't for you.

Do you think its just a coincide that they've asked people to nominate and vote for institutions before they've even finished collecting money from their kickstarter?

Overall I think the company has good intentions and it's nice that they can do a good thing while creating buzz for their kickstarter. It's just inevitable that someone will look at this post and think this machine would be a good alternative to a proper CNC router and be disappointed when they receive it.

[Lil' Lavery]

Company has PR motivations for act of generosity. News at 11.

[AdamHeard]

Not super relevant, but looks like the same people were involved in making this;
http://www.makesmithtech.com/makesmith-cnc-beta-v1/

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

So this wouldn't really be a CNC for our team, but for our school. Also if we are not located at a school we can not apply correct?

I think you could still apply. You would just put in your team info where it asks for school info. But you should probably wait for an official response before you try it, just to be sure.