Have I got a faulty 1.5kw spindle

[Muzzer]

Bummer. They should be doing insulation tests before they ship the products. It's always a risk when you buy Chinesium stuff - the downside of the cheaper deals.

I guess this highlights the importance of correct installation protective earth connections ("equipotential bonding") to all exposed parts. As a general rule, protective earth wiring should be at least as thick as the supply wiring and the fuse rating should be low enough to prevent any of the wiring burning out before the fuse in a fault condition.

You have an RCD here which trips out before any fuses etc are blown or people are fried. Ideally you should have had your protective earthing connected up before this happened but hopefully now you can see how it's important. The danger of relying on a fuse rather than an RCD is that you might pop your VFD and the protection would rely on blowing the fuse which is more of a test of the wiring.

Bottom line is to ensure exposed metallic stuff (including the machine body itself) has a good hard earth connection, particularly if it's been sourced from China! I'm always careful to install and test the main earth connection and ensure everything has a good connection to the (grounded) cabinet / chassis. I'm sure there must be some real horrors in home workshops around the world.

[JAZZCNC]

I'm sure there must be some real horrors in home workshops around the world.

More than people realize and it's not always down to the DIY builder.! . . . I've seen several machines sold by companies to home users with wiring that was dangerous and in one famous case which played out on this forum with the guy actually going to jail with machine potentially lethal had it been turned on.

I know of two cases of sheds being burnt down and one case with an attached garage where the house was badly damaged and the insurance refused to pay out because wasn't insured for machinery.!! . . . . . The simple rule is DONT MESS if don't fully understand what your doing and never cut corners because that £20 you saved on a RCD or fuses etc could easily turn into £20,000 or £200,000 if it burns the house down.!!