As soon as you get into creating projects with CNC machines, you’ll run into the same problem all of us do: your CNC is never big enough. And as soon as you step up to a larger CNC, you’ll run into the second problem: where to put it! CNCs that can cut big projects like furniture have traditionally taken up a large amount of space. Let’s look at some options that don’t.
One of the first to tackle this problem was Brook Drumm at Printrbot when he created the Crawlbot in 2015. The Crawlbot could cut full-sized sheets of plywood but when stored, took up little more than a square foot of space in your garage. It was able to pull off this minor miracle by rolling along the sheet that was being cut, instead of needing a large permanent work table. Unfortunately, Printrbot went out of business and the Crawlbot is no longer on the market.
Yeti SmartBench
Don’t worry though, if you’re looking for that small storage footprint, the Yeti SmartBench has you covered. The SmartBench quickly unfolds a bench for your full-sheet material to lie upon, but fully wraps around your material so it can also use that bench as its Y axis. Make: alumnus Caleb Kraft put the Yeti through its paces a few years ago in a review and liked it. One downside is its price tag, which comes in close to more powerful standard CNCs, so you are definitely paying for the portability.
Maslow 4.1
Need to save some space, but you’re still working on a budget? Why not try Maslow! The first Maslow raised many an eyebrow when it came to Kickstarter in 2017. It was a CNC router kit that operated more like a whiteboard drawbot: it hung, with weights on its gondola, from two belts. Its vertical nature meant Maslow could be mounted along a wall, taking up far less floor space than a traditional CNC while still cutting full sheet goods. The downside? It didn’t have a great Z-axis and the hanging gondola could easily lose steps and position. After 7 years of evolution, we got to peek at a new version in 2024 and found ourselves impressed. But the Maslow team had more improvements on the way.
Now we’ve had a chance to use the Maslow 4.1, the newest version of this unique CNC machine. It’s literally built around the popular Dewalt 611 palm router, as it uses the router itself as part of the structure and mechanics of the machine. Gone are the days of dangling from two belts; the Maslow 4.1 connects four belts to a horizontal surface or near-vertical stand. Unlike most CNCs and 3D printers, it doesn’t use stepper motors for its X/Y movements but instead employs DC servos, which are less expensive and contain encoders that sense how far they’ve moved. This means the machine won’t lose steps or position while cutting because it uses closed-loop control.
One of the ways Maslow keeps prices down is that it comes as a kit for $525, shockingly little for a machine capable of full-sheet cuts. The build takes a few hours; if you’ve ever assembled a 3D printer it will feel familiar yet unique.
The Maslow is the smallest storage package of any of these full-sheet machines also. It’s only slightly larger than your average 3D printer and can easily be tucked away on a shelf when not in use. Of course you also need some kind of bench or stand to place your workpiece on; the Maslow team provides plans for creating different ways to mount and use your Maslow (including mounting it to your garage floor) but I think we’ll see more innovation as the community gets their hands on these little wonders for your shop. (I’m working on a few designs specifically for the Maslow that I hope to share in Make: soon.)
X-Carve Pro
Of course no machine is perfect and everything is a compromise. All of the machines above trade off speed and rigidity for portability; they’re great for hobbyists or small-scale jobs, or for taking to a job site, but would not be my pick to get real business done.
If you want serious speed and rigidity at the cost of some workshop space — but still don’t have room for a full-size 4×8 machine — take a look at the Inventables X-Carve Pro. Their 4×4 and 4×2 formats, with indexed pass-through system, can cut like machines two to four times their size.
If you’ve dreamed of building CNC furniture or making custom signs for your friends and neighbors, but thought you didn’t have the space for the machine needed to bring your idea to life, hopefully one of these space-saving CNCs will help you along your journey.
This article appeared in Make: Volume. 96.
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