Arggggggggh, just burned out another cheap router after about 50hrs on aluminium. I must invest in a decent spindle, anyone have any suggestions?
No problems with a chinese 2.5KW spindle and one of the Huawai VFDs.
Even got RS485 spinde control working.
Just be sure to do the star configuration for earth properly.
Have you seen the site http://openbuilds.com? They list a few builds there for diy machines.
Thanks for the input guys, I’ve just looked at a Kress 800 FME, on eBay £190, 10 year warranty, 10,000 to 25,000 rpm, 43mm mount, so fits my set-up, 2kg so lighter and less faf than water cooled. Any opinions?
I would lean towards a water cooled spindle. I would imagine you would get better run time and maybe speed out of it. Just my opinion. I don’t have any experience with anything like this, yet.
@Peter_Fouche1 0-10V PWM, RS485 or controlling via the keys and display on the VFD. All supported.
I’m also in the process to decide which spindle to buy. I would like to know if water cooled is the only way to go when milling aluminium, or if a Kress can handle it.
@Henrik_Larsen I’ll let you know, just ordered and expecting to set-up on Wednesday. The spec is for protected internals, so aluminium dust shouldn’t be a problem. I keep my cuts small to care for the bearings. These are specified for many industrial CNC applications so I’m hopeful that it will last longer than my cheap routers.
@Peter_Fouche1 8mm Max is fine for me, a lot of my tools are 1/4" shank and smaller.
@Tim_Page-Brown - great, waiting to hear from your experience…
@Henrik_Larsen OK, spindle turned up today. So quiet compared to my old one. Tool qualty, plastics and machined register look very good, actually comes with a test report on end float and reflection. At 10,000 rpm and 1/4" 3 fluke end mill a 8mm plunge cut into mahogany, hardly any drop in revs. 1mm cut into 6063-T5 Aluminium, same mill and speed got a little vibration, looks like my mount isn’t square to the bed any more. So far, I would recommend this spindle.