Where to get a spindle

[HiltonSteve]

Thanks,

i have emailed them asking for dimensions of it, it may be a bit small compared to the rest of the machine i am making,

Kev,

I came to the same conclusion as you, that's why I am making one which is not as difficult as you may think if you have access to a lathe to do the mods to the ER16 milling chuck.

My spindle will consist of 2 angular contact bearings at the top to take out the end float and 2 bearings at the bottom to take the side loads, all housed in a steel housing which will be mounted with a couple of 20mm aluminium plates top and bottom.

Your housing could be made to your own design using whatever size bearings you think will be suitable for your machine but what I have should suit what you are after. If you want I could do some drawings of what I have to give you a starting point.

If there are parts that you need making that you can't do yourself then Johns your man, just speak to him nicely, take a couple of packs of hobnobs round and don't take the piss by 'borrowing' too much stuff off of him.....

[John S]

Kev,

If there are parts that you need making that you can't do yourself then Johns your man, just speak to him nicely, take a couple of packs of hobnobs round and don't take the piss by 'borrowing' too much stuff off of him.....

Hey I'd forgotten about that stuff, lets see, 2 Kress spindles, toolpos,t what else ?

[kev]

Kev,

I came to the same conclusion as you, that's why I am making one which is not as difficult as you may think if you have access to a lathe to do the mods to the ER16 milling chuck.

My spindle will consist of 2 angular contact bearings at the top to take out the end float and 2 bearings at the bottom to take the side loads, all housed in a steel housing which will be mounted with a couple of 20mm aluminium plates top and bottom.

Your housing could be made to your own design using whatever size bearings you think will be suitable for your machine but what I have should suit what you are after. If you want I could do some drawings of what I have to give you a starting point.

If there are parts that you need making that you can't do yourself then Johns your man, just speak to him nicely, take a couple of packs of hobnobs round and don't take the piss by 'borrowing' too much stuff off of him.....

Sorry i have not been on hear much recently, been working on the mill, il get some pics up when the stuff arrives, i dont think the sherline spindles are big enough for what i want, basically im using a minium of a 2kw motor possibly up to 4kw depends what is available.

i think making a spindle is the way forward because i just cannot find anything on the internet, id be interested in seeing some drawaings :) thanks. this mill is going to be quite big and very heavy so need a fairly big spindle, most important question is what is the best tooling type? ER 16? i want to be able to have all the cutting tools in their own holders and be able to just quickly change the holders in and out of the spindle. how about an air powered tool holder?

[HiltonSteve]

Sorry i have not been on hear much recently, been working on the mill, il get some pics up when the stuff arrives, i dont think the sherline spindles are big enough for what i want, basically im using a minium of a 2kw motor possibly up to 4kw depends what is available.

i think making a spindle is the way forward because i just cannot find anything on the internet, id be interested in seeing some drawaings :) thanks. this mill is going to be quite big and very heavy so need a fairly big spindle, most important question is what is the best tooling type? ER 16? i want to be able to have all the cutting tools in their own holders and be able to just quickly change the holders in and out of the spindle. how about an air powered tool holder?

2-4kw....!!! bloody hell, what are you thinking of milling????

Been playing with my new 750w (1HP) spindle the last few days and been milling aluminium with 8mm cutters no problem at all, not even a change in motor noise. Still got some minor vibration issues but I think its a combination of things that I am slowly working my way through.

As for a tool changer take a look at this and see what idea's it gives you, certainly gave me a few -

[kev]

2-4kw....!!! bloody hell, what are you thinking of milling????

haha, hmm well i have got an unused 3 phase 15kw inverter so i need a motor that will run with it, so what i will do is gear up the spindle, a 2 pole 3 phase motor is around 3000rpm, so probably gear it so the spindle runs at 12000rpm? at 50 hz, the inverter can go as low as 1hz so 240rpm at the spindle and as high as 170hz not that im going to run it anywhere near that!, so need a semi powerful motor to be able to get the low down torque.

i definitely want to be able to mill aluminium and im thinking it should be able to mill steel.