RFGuy wrote
Thanks Roy. I really appreciate all of this information. Yeah, I had heard that CNC's typically have more of an industrial spindle motor (continuous duty cycle) typically, so I would presume they have better reliability/longevity compared to an off the shelf router. Maybe I am wrong on this, but if true, I wonder if I wouldn't be better off trying to get a spindle motor that will fit the router lift instead of just buying a router. So, I know nothing really about spindle motors. Are there any brands you can recommend for me to take a look at? I am planning on researching this a bit (while I finish the cabinet) before making my purchase, so if I find anything that might fit the lift, I will let you know.
RF Guy,
I'll toss this link to a page of spindles and VFDs for reference,
https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/cnc-spindle. I've bought various things from them in the past, they are US based, but much of their products are Chinese made; I've not had any problems with the items I've bought from them.
There are two main parts that you'd need, a spindle and a VFD. The VFD converts AC wall voltage to 3-phase for the spindle. Up to 2.2KW VFDs have options for 110V or 220V. Here's a link to a 220V 2.2KW VFD. I _think_ the spindle doesn't care what the wall voltage is. Spindles are either air or water cooled, I think in this case air cooled would be fine unless you plan to run heavily for extended amounts of time (many minutes or hours) and don't have any airflow to it, such as a closed box with no vacuum connected to the box; in my case, I have the lift in my SawStop table with a box enclosure and vacuum port so there would be no problem with airflow.
The 2.2KW spindles are the smallest that will take a 1/2" bit, but you can use down to 1/16" by way of different sized collets; for convenience you'd probably want to have multiple collet nuts, one for each size collet you would expect to use. The collet "family" on these is ER20. This is would be my likely candidates if I went through the site, although it is presently out of stock:
https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/cnc-spindle/2200w-3hp-air-cooled-cnc-milling-spindle, although I'd have to verify that it doesn't care about wall voltage if I were to use a 110V VFD.
You'd also need wiring to go from the wall voltage to the VFD and then VFD to spindle.
Other random things:
- These are much, much quieter than routers.
- No brushes.
- The spindle case is pretty substantial, but I think they generally are used with a cylindrical holding system. Would probably have to be careful tightening them in the Mast R Lift.
- I have the 800W spindle that is spec'ed at 65mm diameter. I measured it at maybe 1-2/100s under that, so assume the 80mm spindle would have similar very close tolerances.
- Runout is spec'ed at 0.005mm (2/10,000"). I'd be somewhat surprised to get one that good, and don't even have a way or knowledge to measure to that degree, but even a "bad" spindle is very likely to be far better than a very good router. You'd also have to consider runout in the collet, and that is an item that you definitely get what you pay for; however, to replace a wood router, cheap is probably more than adequate.
- The display/button unit on the linked VFD that, if like mine, can be removed from the unit and has a few inches ribbon cable, so the VFD could be mounted a bit lower and then the display pulled out to spin it up.
- Would need to consider how to integrate a master power switch and possibly an e-stop button. I suspect there is a way to have a separate start/stop button wired in rather than being forced to use the tiny button on the display unit. Some/many/all(?) VFDs have an option to brake and settings for how aggressive to brake upon using the stop button.
- I can't remember if the VFD needs 12V power as well as mains. Sorry, it's been too long since I've been in my CNC's control box which is set up for computer control now rather than manual.
Let me know any specific questions you might have.
