DIY spindle stall monitor

[routercnc]

Finally finished. We needed to strip down some of the machine to route the wiring, then it was time to upload all the information to GitHub.

[JohnHaine]

I'm a bit bemused by this. In my experience of breaking cutters the spindle has never stalled, if it had the cutter might not have broken! The last one I broke I made a mistake setting Z height and the machine made a rapid move straight down into the work, fortunately not through the spoil plate. The spindle carried on regardless! Am I missing something?

[routercnc]

I'm a bit bemused by this. In my experience of breaking cutters the spindle has never stalled, if it had the cutter might not have broken! The last one I broke I made a mistake setting Z height and the machine made a rapid move straight down into the work, fortunately not through the spoil plate. The spindle carried on regardless! Am I missing something?

Cutting 1000 grade thin sheet tend to gum up the cutter. It’s almost pure aluminium. Then it stops cutting and the spindle stalls and the end mill breaks. 6061 alum alloy is better but if the bit gets hot again it can gum up. Mist or flood cooling minimises this risk but it gets messy.

[JohnHaine]

Cutting 1000 grade thin sheet tend to gum up the cutter. It’s almost pure aluminium. Then it stops cutting and the spindle stalls and the end mill breaks. 6061 alum alloy is better but if the bit gets hot again it can gum up. Mist or flood cooling minimises this risk but it gets messy.

Well, I'm still bemused. If it's the cutter that stalls the spindle then it has to take all the momentum of the spindle to stop it so the instantaneous torque on the cutter must be much larger than the motor torque. As I said The motor hasn't stalled any time I've broken a cutter. Anyway it will be good to hear of your experience with the system - will you be doing some controlled experiments?