5. My Makermade CNC Adventure: Building the Temporary Sled

May 27, 2021

Maslow Resources

I’ve never used a router, so this part was a bit of a challenge. I didn’t know how to add the bit, for one thing, and there were a surprising dearth of Youtube videos showing how to do it, at least for this particular router. I watched a lot of reviews of the Ridgid router, and some of them showed a little bit of how to use it, but there were still a lot of gaps. After a couple of hours of watching videos, and in general putting it off, I decided I just needed to plunge in and do it. I figured out how to put a bit in, clamped my wood to the work bench- with blocks underneath so I didn’t accidentally route a hole in the work surface, donned some safety goggles and flipped the “on” switch.

I was surprised and fascinated by how smoothly the router carved away the wood, and how relatively easy it was to control. My finished product was a bit wobbly looking, but I was disproportionately proud of it. Usually for the temporary sled you only need to carve a hole in the middle, but the wood round I bought so I could skip sawing out a square by hand was a little too thick, so I traced the shape of my router onto the wood and routed out a recess to fit it into.

My goal was actually to skip the whole temporary sled and just make something I could use as a final sled- I really, really hate doing the same thing over twice. I also wanted go as small as possible with the sled, so I used this 15″ round. It got a little crowded by the time I added the ring, the z-axis, and the weights, but it did work.

The sled is another area where Maslow users innovate in so many fascinating ways. Tell me how you handled it. did you build a temporary sled or try to skip this step?

1.3BuildingTheTemporarySled

Tools Needed

Router, .25” router bit
Handsaw or circular saw
Screwdrivers
Power Drill, .25” & .5” drill bits
Socket wrench, various sizes

5/16 Allen Wrench
Pencil
Safety goggles
Clamps (optional)

Materials List

(1) 4×8 plywood, .75” thick*
(2) bricks
(3) Size 10-32 machine screws
Hardware and parts from kit

Cut List

(1) 18×18” square
(2) 1×5.5” rectangles**

*If you have scrap plywood on hand, it’s not neccesary to buy a whole sheet of plywood

**Brick holders should be the right size for your bricks, measure to make sure they’re wide enough to stretch across the whole brick with about .75″ hanging off either side.

STEP 1 CUT OUT PLYWOOD PARTS

Mark dimensions of parts on plywood
Exactness is not critical for temporary sled
Using hand or circular saw, cut out parts

STEP 2 CUT CENTER HOLE FOR BIT

Mark 1.5”x1.5” hole in center of sled
Use router to cut out hole, going down approx 1/10” per pass

STEP 3 REMOVE ROUTER HANDLES, BASEPLATE

Remove cap on side of handle
Bolt inside hole may be unscrewed with a 5/16 allen wrench
Turn router over so baseplate is up
Use Phillips-head screwdriver to remove 3 machine screws from bottom of baseplate
Set router and baseplate aside

STEP 4 ATTACH L-BRACKETS TO RING

In your browser, navigate to
http://github.com/MaslowCNC/Firmware/releases/
Download latest version of firmware
Open zip folder
Install program on your computer

STEP 4 ATTACH L-BRACKETS TO RING

In your browser, navigate to
http://github.com/MaslowCNC/Firmware/releases/
Download latest version of firmware
Open zip folder
Install program on your computer

STEP 5 ATTACH CARRIAGES TO RING

Place one carriage on either side of ring
Insert shoulder bolt up through bottom of carriage, slip one washer over bolt, then one ring bearing, then another washer
Push shoulder bolt through top of carriage, fasten with nut
Do this twice for each carriage
Use allen wrench to tighten bolts
Bearings should still rotate freely