Hello everyone. New to the CNC world, but I have loads of 3D printing experience. Recently finished my MPCNC and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I’m waiting on some 1" MDF to make a spoil board for it, but it’s clear that I’ll need a real spindle. Been looking around for different options and would love some recommendations.
I’ve been looking at this
http://www.amazon.com/Konmison-Cooled-Spindle-CNC-Converter/dp/B016B2IEBC/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1460068383&sr=8-6&keywords=water+cooled+spindle
And a few similar air-cooled ones as well. Any experience or feedback on them?
I don’t plan to be doing a lot of aluminum milling, but I’m sure I will on occasion. Wood (mostly of the hard variety), PC, and delrin will likely be most common.
Highly recommend a dewalt 611, precisebits collets, if you have the money the superPID controller for it is nice as well.
I’ve seen that router lots. I have a bosch 1617evspk, but not sure about how I feel with that much mass on the carriage.
Is the reasoning for the 611 because it’s cheap (relatively) and easy to mount?
yea, I’ve got the bosh too, love the dewalt though. Inexpensive and has been very reliable.
Do you have an MPCNC? How much does the 611 weigh? Do you have a mount design you care to share?
I built one of these http://neo7cnc.com/projects/kr33-mini-cnc-1st-version/
Not sure on the weight, I just used one of the aluminum mounts you can find online for the 611.
Looks nice and stout. Not sure my current setup is ideal for that router. It’s ~30" x 30". I’d trust those aluminum extrusions. Conduit? Not so much
if my 3d-printer is ready, my first job will be a set for this cnc
I’m using a similar one (air cooled) and it’s ok. But it’s way too ‘musculed’ for your constrction which doesn’t have too much stifness. You will be tempted to use much of the spindle power and this will bringa lot of deformations and vibrations.
Sounds like you are getting the idea. If you are from a strong 3D printer background then you understand slow prints and flimsy moving parts (belt drives, light weight structures etc). CNC is all about rigidity. Routers need weight to have power. The more power they have the faster they can go and the heavier the structure needs to be. Cutting into the side of the workpiece tries to bend everything. That is just not a consideration with 3D printing, or laser or plasma cutting.
I guess what I mean is that to get good results you need to define what you want in terms of speed and ability to cut as that beefs everything up (including cost). You can’t just go slow and expect good results. Cutting certain materials requires minimum speeds to actually bite. You will have seen how easy it is to burn wood with a router. Solution? push harder and work faster. Examine every mechanical connection and ask yourself what load will is see as you cut in different directions and is it strong and stiff enough.
Good luck
Average 2.2kw spindle has a weight 4.4kg. Alex and peter are correct you may have to do a redesign or build of your CNC. If you go water cooled add in the weight of the water etc.
No problem! The pot control can be bought sepparately for extra 5-10$. But it’s not very usefull. It works with PWM and it will cut, also, your available torque together with rpm. So, mostly of the time you will use it with the max rpm which is not so unbearable, because i don’t think you can use mills greater than 3mm (1/16") with the frame you show us. And those will need, very probablethe full ‘throtle’!
I started with such item. It is very good for PCB, engraving, light milling wood/plexy. I even tryed with alu but with VERY small chips (so, also high rpm).
If you realy want to mill something, you should consider a min of 800w (air cooled) or, better, not an DC, but an AC spindle with a freq controller. A little more expenisive but very useful. But REALLY, I don’t think this kind of framework will support anything else than the 300w spindle.
So, think with care what kind of operations you are intending to do with your machine. Reasonable will be to start with what you already have + the 300w spindle to ‘feel’ for yourself the chipping processus and after to move to the real machine you will understand you need.
