Spindle Speed Controller Question

[Clive S]

Thomas If this is the build you are doing http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6832-...e-needed/page2 I would go with a Water cooled spindle as they are very quiet. The air cooled are noisy. As Lee has said the 1.5KW has an ER11 collet the 2.2Kw has the ER20 which would be better if you want to make a bigger machine in the future. You won't be happy with the DC after a few minuets . Good luck with the build.

[Ger21]

Most of those little 400w "spindles" come with controllers that use a pot to control the speed. You should be able to use the PWM signal from Mach3 and convert it to a 0-5V signal to use in place of the pot.

But really, you're better off buying a real spindle.

[Boyan Silyavski]

1hp spindles also work very good for small machines and cutters up to 8mm. Plus a brand 0.75kw VFD like Toshiba are around 110 euro only. Actually for a small machine not meant for production, i don't see a reason for a bigger spindle.

Less than that i would not go.

[thomashomer1986]

Yes Clive that is the machine it is for, it's been a long build but it will get finished one day lol! Family life takes over and it keeps having to be put on hold.

I'll leave the 400w spindle then, I was expecting that answer tbh!

I'll save up and get the water cooled spindle then, I will have to get some new brackets made to mount it tho so may take me a bit longer. I used to be a machinist in a heavy engineering workshop so had access to making pretty much anything I wanted back then, but now I'm in an office job I'm limited to asking my old work mates to make bits for me!

Do you have a link to one of those spindles Boyan?

Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Boyan Silyavski]

Do you have a link to one of those spindles Boyan?

0.8kw spindle, its ok to buy it together with the chinese VFD drive, which many people use. I use one for my 3kw spindle , price wise. But for smaller motors i personally use and prefer the Toshiba VFD


With the correct cutter 0.8kw spindle does not have problem to go up to 1/4 deep in aluminum with 1/4 carbide bit, provided mist cooling

[Clive S]

The 0.8Kw spindle are only 65mm Dia. Think first if you are going to build a bigger machine in the future as the 1.5Kw or 2.2Kw are not much more money and they have a bigger collet

[thomashomer1986]

I did make a mistake when building my machine to not account for a bigger spindle, but who doesn't make mistakes on there first build lol?

The idea of this build was just to get me going and learn from it so that when i wanted to make a bigger and better machine i would have a better understanding of machine building. However since my circumstances have now changed considerably (ie 2 kids and changing jobs) the likely-hood of me building a second machine is pretty slim.

with regards to spindles, are the air cooled ones really much worse than the water cooled? because i'm under the impression that the water cooled system requires a separate water tank and pump? which would just put the price up further.