Maker BLOG
My Makermade CNC Adventure: Adding the Electronics
I was a little apprehensive about setting up the electronics for the Maslow. I’ve been an occasional reader of Make magazine, I’d heard the term Arduino, but I’d never seen one in person. I like to make things, but that’s mostly been rough woodworking, fiber related, or graphic design- nothing with electronics or chips of any sort. But the Maslow designers really made the process easy. I sat down at my kitchen table, laid out all the parts, and was done in about half an hour. I had a few hiccups, like not realizing I was supposed to open a program once I’d downloaded it, so I tried to make sure the instructions I wrote for the manual spell out details like that. Tools Needed Power Drill Screwdrivers Safety goggles Computer or tablet Internet connection Materials List Part #1 AC Power Cable Part #2 Arduino with Heat Shield Part #4 DC Power Supply Part #9 USB Cable Part #10 Flash Drive (optional) Part #11 X and Y Motor Cables Part #12 X and Y Motor Mounts Part #13 X and Y Motors Hardware Bag #5 Hardware Bag #6 STEP 1: CONNECT THE MOTORS X and Y motor cables, as well
My Makermade CNC Adventure: Building The Frame
One of the things that makes the. Maslow CNC so affordable is that each user builds their own frame. Maslow users are tinkerers, and variations on the frame are endless. Two users, dlang and MadGrizzle, did a lot of testing and weeding through ideas and developed the default frame. It’s a great frame to start with. Bar, one of the original Maslow developers, also came up with a version of the default frame that bolts together, rather than using glue and screws. I decided to go with the bolt together frame, because I like the idea that of being able to disassemble the frame a little more easily if I want to move it, and because it worked better with the 2x4s I already had on hand. You can read the build instructions I wrote for the default frame here. The bolt together version of these instructions will come out soon. I headed to Home Depot and got the bolts I needed, along with a couple of 2x4s to round out what I already had. I felt a little self conscious at Home Depot- on a weekday morning it feels like everyone else in the lumber department is a legit construction
My Makermade CNC Adventure: What’s In Those Hardware Bags?
After I did the last post, we got a lot of questions about those mysterious little hardware bags. They’re just labeled 1-8, and yes, it can be hard to know what’s what! This is exactly why it’s so great that MakerMade has given me this assignment. I’m seeing everything with the eyes of a novice and the things that are confusing to you are confusing to me too! I sat down, combed through the instructions, and through process of elimination, and deductive reasoning, sorted it all out. It took me awhile, and now that’s something that nobody else will ever have to suffer through! I’ve even identified a few components that are no longer needed, and made some suggestions for components to add. So here’s what’s what in the hardware bags: *for a downloadable PDF click here 1.0_WhatsInYourKit Bag #1 Hardware for attaching the chains to the frame Bag #2 Bungee cords and hardware for attaching the cords to the frame Bag #3 Hardware for attaching the bolts to the sled Bag #4 Multiple uses Bag #5 Hardware for attaching the motors to the motor mounts Bag #6 Hardware for attaching the Arduino to the frame Bag #7 Hardware for attaching
My MakerMade CNC Adventure: Kit Components
Once my kit arrived, the first thing I did was make sure I had all the parts. There’s a sheet inside the box with a list, and a link to a great interactive image on the website showing all of the components. It took me a minute to figure out what was what. If you’re not ready to start building right away and don’t want to unwrap everything, here’s an image that shows what’s what. I’ve labeled each component just in case, like me, you don’t know your XY motor mounts from your ring carriage on sight. MakerMade CNC Kit Components NEXT STEP: WHAT’S IN THOSE HARDWARE BAGS? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
A Great Project from JD Builds
Last week we shared a great project from Justin DeBoer of JD Builds. This week he sent us an image of this sweet Cubs Marquee sign he made with his MakerMade CNC Kit. Here’s what he says about the process: This project was inspired after scrolling through the projects section of the Maslow Forums. The design is not my own, credit goes to @ScrumdyBum for the drawing file. This was one of the first projects that I cut out with my machine, and I must say it turned out very well! Let’s go through the steps really quickly: Since the file was already drawn and a CAM was already set up, it just needed to be opened in Ground Control! Make sure to secure your plywood very well with no clamps or screws in the way. For this project I used MDF because of how smooth it can be cut! The bit setup is critical with this sign because there are three different sized bits all trying to cut on the same plane. Each bit change needed to be done so that the bit was at the same height each time inside of the router so that the end cut
My MakerMade CNC Adventure: Unboxing
Hi, I’m Rachel! I joined the MakerMade team about a month ago as a designer. I quickly decided that to turn out great, user friendly designs, I’d need to learn more about how the MakerMade CNC Kit works. I talked it over with the MakerMade team and they agreed that it would be awesome if I could take each project all the way through from design to gcode to cut and build. So they sent me a kit! Some of my goals are to: create designs that account for the size of the bit and other physical constraints create Gcode that’s as efficient as possible- no 3 day cutting odysseys create full tutorials with pictures of each and every project in our library add to the body of knowledge about CNC to make it accessible to an even wider audience I’ve always loved to make things, before “maker” was a thing. I have that stubborn “I can do that myself” outlook, whether it’s building garden beds and chicken coops, or refining my own beeswax. But for the past few years most of my “making” has been on the screen. I’m thrilled for this opportunity to bring my designs from pixel
