Where to buy spindle

[HipoPapi]

Hi,

Silyavski thanks for your input although it seems to me that you might have missed my first post or miss read it. As I explained there my starting point in this cnc machine is an end Mill with the measurements of 250 mm long excluding the shaft and 23 mm in diameter. The shaft is 19.5 mm in diameter so I guess that explains where the Er32 collet comes from. Also due to the length of the end mill the 5 hp spindle is definitely needed. I know this from experience working with ice cnc machines before. We have used a perske 5.5 hp air cooled spindle without any special sealing and 5 years on is still going strong with at least 6 hours run time per day.
Although I might look into special sealing I don't find it necessary as explained earlier there is no water involved at all as the machine and material is constantly at - 5 degrees so all the chips are powder snow... And a lot of it.
Also carbide bits don't work on ice in fact only special bits made for ice work. I have tried all sorts of bits before just to see as ice bits are quite expensive but no luck... hence the price. For instance that 250 mm bit costs 350 dollars and by the time I get it to the UK cost just as much in pounds sterling.
I do appreciate your input and time and hopefully you understand better now what I am up against.
Also the machine won't be in a cell, it will be in a very large freezer in fact my ice studio so even while loading and unloading will stay at that temperature.
My difficulty at the moment is the very large z travel as my material is also 250 mm high and with the bit lifted above it the spindle needs to travel to other areas but would need to work on thinner slabs of ice as well with smaller bits.
Anyway I did not have any free time in the past few weeks to think about it but hopefully will be able to upload some drawings by the end of the week to discuss it further.
Thanks again for the comments.

[HipoPapi]

Hello again,

I have been quite busy lately with work, but I think I finally know which way I am going with this build and some help would be appreciated.

So far I have the structure and now comes the part where I have to decide what size stepper motors to use and what diameter should my lead screws be as I would like to design the mounts for them.

I assume the stepper motor or servo choice defines the control board choice as well.

A couple of questions:

Can the gantry weight be guestimated ? Yes I am quite lazy to find out the weight of each component :) I know that the spindle motor is 15 kg :)

If yes than what size and torque motors would suite my design? ( I would like it to be fast and strong. Strong enough for wood in comparison )

I assume belt drive is not the best choice in a sub zero environment therefore I have the option of direct drive or Chain and sprocket. What would be the best choice?

I would like to use Mach 3 as the controller and would like to upgrade to 4 axes as soon as I am done with the build. Do you have any suggestions on control boards and the electronics involved?


Here are a couple of pictures of the structure to make things a bit clearer:

Light Grey = 100 x 100 x 3 or 4
Dark Grey = 150 x 100 x 3 or 4
Orange = 10 mm steel plate
White = 20 mm aluminum plate
Blue = ice
Purple = removable module to be replaceable with 4th axes module in future
20mm HIWIN rails an all axes






Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Vass

[Boyan Silyavski]

Hi,
starts to look good.

Some notes:

- what precision you aim for the cut? Ice will cut, but i see it vibrating if you intend to cut aluminum. It can be made much more rigid if you add some vertical profiles on the gantry, no problem if they are 60x60 and offset from the back gantry plain outwards like 5mm as i remember, so the motor will pass and fit inside the gantry.

-My suggestion is if you like, to have a look at my new gantry design , there are some cheap improvements over your design especially of the side plates. using profile, can cheapen the build and lessen the time.


-the table looks like a tank, so good enough for me


-you must calculate at the end the exact weight of the gantry, cause you can accidentally go in servo territory and or need to drive all with some reduction, which will affect the speed, which will affect the motor choice and drives, etc...

[HipoPapi]

Hi Silyavsky,

I have seen your new build log already and looks great and find it a great idea with the air hammer. I have tried to incorporate your gantry design as not having to laser cut would be great, but in my case it doesn't seem to work as it would make the whole machine 200 mm wider which in may case is just wasted space as the ice blocks are always the same size.

I do not intend to cut other materials than ice with this machine as I have tried on time before and all the filters in the freezer got messed up :)

well than I guess I have to work out the weight of the gantry ):

Thanks again.

[HipoPapi]

One more question.

at the moment I have left 20 mm of extra rail on all axes in each direction behind where the limit switches would be. So basically when the limit switch stops the movement will still have 20 mm rail left. Is that enough?

[HipoPapi]

Hello again,

Has anyone used this calculator before?

http://www.onealsteel.com/calculators.html

If this is correct although i dont think so as it always gives me round numbers but hopefully is rounding upwards than my gantry without the steppers or servos, and mounts and lead screw, cables and Hiwin reals and blocks is 137 kg therefore I assume with all those added will be around 160 kg.

Where do I go from here? Please

Thanks,
Vass