Is there any way I can get a good quality spindle w/o buying a whole mill? I wanted to build one from the ground up and I’m stuck at this point where I could use something with about one horsepower but the best I’ve been able to find is this.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1663

This doesn’t look all that bad but I’d like to see what other options I’ve got.

For the money that would prob be your best bet. You can get sherline and taig heads but there not as heavy. I would really consider on buying a hole mill though. The money you spend on that head you better of buying a mill and converting it. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with moto21. For 150 dollars more you could buy a cummins mini mill, that has that very head and I think r8 tooling as well

You can get a Taig head that uses ER-16 collects from Cartertools.com for about $100-$110 delivered. While not heavy duty, I suspect that you could run more HP through it than Taig offers, I saw several aroung the web with dual motors attached. The Taig is designed for high speed as well with a top advertised speed of 10,000 rpm.

I have a sherline industrial ER-16 collet spindle cartidge on my machine. Nice peice of work.