A friend mentioned that you do want an acrylic-specific bit for the router. I don't know if that would solve the melting problem or not, but he says the plastic likes to crack otherwise. I guess you could do a rough cut with a saw and do the final shaping with the router.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I’ll also bet some plexi product rout better than others
Plexi requires a cooling stream and a high speed spindle.
That said, I have used a router and a standard router bit to cut aluminum. It works quite well.
I hate to be a hater again :) but it seems like they're selling the dream here.
But don't take my word for it:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/cnc/where-does-the-maslow-cnc-fit-in-the-woodworking-world/
3-4 passes to cut through 3/4" plywood at 30 inches per minute. No thanks.
FWIW I run a Cnc plasma cutter and do the design work associated with my products. It's a nice one but requires knowledge and depending on what's being cut, baby sitting.
jamscal said:I hate to be a hater again :) but it seems like they're selling the dream here.
But don't take my word for it:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/cnc/where-does-the-maslow-cnc-fit-in-the-woodworking-world/
3-4 passes to cut through 3/4" plywood at 30 inches per minute. No thanks.
That article is old - ancient by open source project standards. It's still slow because of how it's designed, but they have the accuracy sorted out. Partly firmware and partly structural changes to the frame and design changes to the router sled.
If you want to build something faster and more conventional, look at the Mostly Printed CNC routers here.
I bought one as an avid woodworker, and I can personally say yes. If you buy the recommended rigid router (personally I would have preferred the Bosch but without the 3d printer to print the coupler for the zshaft I was left with little choice but to downgrade that 1/2 horsepower) the wood for the frame and various bits you will be short by about a grand. And a couple of weeks later after finding a pc setup(luckily I have tons of spare pc parts laying around and was able to throw together a pretty decent setup for a shop pc) extending your wifi to reach your Shop or running a Lan you may be setback another hundred or so. But... After the calibration process then the next calibration process(because everyone does it completely wrong the first time) then the last re-calibration because you probably fudged something up there too, you will have a working 4x8 foot cnc machine if not larger, (or smaller depending on your usable space). Using easel, a completely free software from inventables you can easily design pretty much anything as well as being able to import dxf and svg files not to mention pdf files and a built in image tracer that will trace any image to a limit and give you the lines to play with in the software. Only catch is easel req a constant internet connection as the program is run through your explorer. After you have the design you want, have set the workspace area, board thickness cut and z axis speed, (tabs... You are working on an incline) you can easily transfer it to gcode which is readable by the Maslow cnc control software, set your home and press play(and turn your router on) if you need a different bit for a different part of your work peice then build your entire peice in maslow and section it off by router bit type, as long as the home is the same finish one program then run the next, my maslow paid for itself in the first week just by saving me the time of cutting the blood grooves in cutting boards and using the spoiler board bit to level out boards that were too wide for my 13" planer. Banked the second week by cutting out kitchen cabinets with custom door designs. I would highly recommend any serious woodworker to add this to their collection of tools
In reply to Arnold :
I'd love to see more of the stuff you've made with the router!
akamcfly said:If you want to build something faster and more conventional, look at the Mostly Printed CNC routers here.
Damn, now I am looking at this: https://www.v1engineering.com/lowrider-cnc/
There is now a upgraded version of this that incorporates various improvements as I understand it. Tempting.
That is really appetizing.
Guess this thread is semi zomibified, but Ill add a +1 to the v1engineering cnc plans. I built a lowrider that im hoping to finish up in the next month, and convert to plasma in the next year
Only a 2 car garage, so my table has a parking pad and the main work area folds up
I'm very curious on your thoughts of the v1 once you get it up and running. It's something i've been mulling over about building for a couple months now.
Man I want one of the wood ones for making body bucks. I can do everything in fusion or solidworks and just take slices ,add some tabs and would not have to use a large format foam cutter.
wearymicrobe said:Man I want one of the wood ones for making body bucks. I can do everything in fusion or solidworks and just take slices ,add some tabs and would not have to use a large format foam cutter.
Yeah, however if you cutting that many slices, its probably going to be way slower than the bigass CNC.
What are you making body bucks for?
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