1st Build, Second machine

[Jonathan]

Keep a spare then? Unless the proper ones are less than twice as much as the cheap ones and don't charge for repair you're still winning. I bought my second one and it arrived in about 4 days, not bad I thought.

If you really need lots of torque at low rpm then having the vector drive helps, so that's one reason to get one. Still if you want to do that get the 2.kW spindle so you've got more power at low rpm to start with (and the bigger collet of course). They come up cheap on eBay occasionally.

[JAZZCNC]

Keep a spare then? Unless the proper ones are less than twice as much as the cheap ones and don't charge for repair you're still winning. I bought my second one and it arrived in about 4 days, not bad I thought.

Yes keeping a spare does make sense but it does workout more expensive. A quick look and I can get a 2.2kw torque vector drive for £137 and probably cheaper for flux drive(Non vector) if I shopped about. I've seen them as low as £99 +vat obviously the VAT don't matter if your business thats vat registered.

Just looking on ebay the Huanyang vfd would be approx £85 x 2= £170 plus VAT and import duty if your unlucky plus the usual £10 for the robbing shipping companys charge.
Yes it would probably be slightly cheaper because you'll get the first about £60-70 if bought with spindle. Yes you will have 2 drives but both will be Non vector drives even then thou it's still a close call if you buy like for like non vector drives that you could get 2 for only slightly more in UK. In this case then for the little extra it would still make more sense to buy local for warranty advantage.

If a business it's something that needs carefull attention and although 4 days hisn't long it's still 3 more than couriering from most places in UK, which could be as low as hours depending where purchased from. To a business even 1 day of down time could make the difference between making money and blowing money or going POP.!!

Personally If it was my main living I'd have a spare all the time and both would be vector drives bought in UK. . . . I'd also have a spare spindle.!

[Jonathan]

Personally If it was my main living I'd have a spare all the time and both would be vector drives bought in UK. . . . I'd also have a spare spindle.!

Same, although if vector drives (and the corresponding advantages) didn't exist it would be less clear cut.

I didn't get charged by customs on the VFD, they said it was shipped from the UK and I can't remember if that was actually true. Probably not, and I also hate the £10! But try ignoring it and you get lots of letters (it was worth a shot).