homeshopcnc HF Spindle

[jeb]

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone out there has tried out the HF spindle from homeshopcnc.com and would like to share any feedback. I am considering adding one to my new machine. Any thoughts?

[ger21]

Expect to add at about $500 or more for a VFD, line reactor and filter. And then you need to add a water pump and reservoir to cool it. But it does look interesting.

[jeb]

Hi Ger,
I have some VFD experience, but could you share a little more about the requirements for a line reactor and filter? I have seen others on this forum use a line reactor for input and output, is this the preferred way to go? Are 2 reactors, and a filter necessary? I work for an espresso machine company, so I have the pump side covered. I had a crazy idea to use my 8020 gantry as the cooling manifold...... I have 2 pieces of 1.5x4 attached to either side of a piece of 3x6, so there is certainly a lot of mass there to soak up heat. As long as it didn't hold 50lbs. of coolant, and the temp rise didn't screw up the z-axis calibration, it might work. I'm hoping they post some more detailed specs on the spindle so I can figure out what kind of watt dissipation is required of the cooling system. What do you think?
-Jacob

[ger21]

I don't know much about VFD's, but looking at Automation Direct, they offer all those accessories with their VFD's.

[BobF]

My wood lathe runs on a VFD. Neither of these were offered or suggested by Powermatic. Of course this is a large 3 phase induction motor that would be quite a load on CNC spincle. May be apples and oranges.

[MonoNeuron]

There are a few people here that have HFS on their machines and some of them say they are very expensive to fix and out of their HF spindles, Porter Cable 2Hp router and sundry other brand they have they use the Porter Cable routers the most and don't have any trouble with them. Cheap to replace the brushes and cheap to replace the machine if it buggers up.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Rich.

[wcarrothers1]

Not sure how good the HF spindle is. Says made in china though so how bad could it be..hehe

But in anycase coupled with my Ekstrom carlson spindle I have the 3hp VFD, filter and input and output reactors from automation direct. It was much cheeper to go with the automation direct bits then what Ekstrom was selling. And Automation stuff is as good or rather made side by side at the same (probably china again) factory as the national brands what ever they might be. So their stuff is good stuff for sure. And their phone support is AMERICAN believe it or not. They helped me through all the settings I needed to get it up and going or to verify I was doing things right.

Only thing I can say is make sure you wire in the fault from the VFD controller back into your control systems so incase your VFD stalls out it estops the drives as well.

for cooling I'd do a regular tank radiator and fan from D-tek http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp
They sell all that sorta waterblock and cheep radiators for those CPU overclocker people.

b.

[rexstep]

Hi Guys,

Rick from Rex Machine Industries here (homeshopcnc.com). The spindle is tech supported by GorrillaCNC out of Canada. We had them test out a sample before ordering them in quantity. They've since ordered from us in quantity and are confident enough in it to offer their router product with our spindle.

We will be offering a VFD to go with it this summer for a price that I think everyone will like.

I understand the hesitance at low priced HF spindle out of China but we have our own man on the ground in China and are careful to avoid poor quality.

Regards,

Rick LaLonde

[wcarrothers1]

Well Rick makes it sound pretty good. Whos going to be the first one to give it a try? Seems like it's probably a dead lock on being better then a Porter cable.

If I had not already taken the plunge with the ekstrom I'd try it.

If it had a square boddy rather then round it would be easier to mount.

I'm not 100% sure other then it being quieter (which would be a major bonus) if I'd have success with the water cooling as I figure I'd be the luckey guy to get leaks but no reason some one could not get that going correctly.

b.

[abasir]

I've got a smaller unit... only 850W... got it locally here, not from homeshopcnc...

Specs should be similar although mine doesn't have the grease/lubrication inlet... I believe the minimum speed specified is around 8000rpm... So far I have no problem with it... VFD also made in China... haven't really stressed the spindle as it's only on a Sherline

You can see my setup here
A hobbyist setup with aquarium water pump for cooling system...

Originally Posted by jeb Hi Everyone, I was wondering if anyone out there has tried out the HF spindle from homeshopcnc.com and would like to share any feedback. I am considering adding one to my new machine. Any thoughts?

[jeb]

Hi Abasir,
Are you using water as the coolant? Do you blow the water out of the spindle after each use? Thanks for the post,
Jacob

[abasir]

Hello Jacob,

Yes, I'm using tap water as coolant. I added the automotive radiator coolant additive to the water to give it some anti rust property.

I do not blow out the water after every use... after 6 months, I haven't seen any detrimental effect... unless it's too minute to see...

Cheers.