Another router bites the dust

[ger21]

The red one was probably a Milwaukee. Those are the only two fixed based 3+HP routers made.

[woodman08]

yes it was a Milwaukee and the tech said not to replace the 7518

[ger21]

I've read lots of posts from people who prefer the Milwaukee. But I have a 7518, so I can't tell you the difference.

[Horseman]

The 1st router started to smoke and get very hot. This one so far has just started making a lot more noise and start to get hot before I shut it down. The one job was about 6 hours total with a few stops for bit changes and stock changes. I am going to try running the router again today to see if it will start to smoke or not. I will slow the router down and make sure the table is running at Constant Velocity.

[CNCMAN172]

Horseman,

I also run the same Bosch router and the bearings died in about 12 hours of use. I was shocked to see it die so fast. I got a replacement one because I figured I got a lemon, but think the bearing can not handle the speed. I dialed mine down to about 12K and have only been cutting maybe 3 hours on the new router. I also made sure I did not restrict the air flow out of the nose of the router. I had been using a deverter to help keep the air from blowing the chips all over the place and this might have cased excess hear to build up even though I did not block the vents. I also purchased a 4HP water cooled spindle from Ebay with a VFD, which I will be putting on shortly. I need to build a mount because they did not have them on ebay. I am going to make something similar to the ones you see offered my K2CNC, I even sent them an email as they recently started selling mounts that fit the 2.2KW 80mm water cooled spindles. The spindle is heavy duty and uses Germany bearing according the the ebay ad. I have read on the zone others are happy with the water cooled units and run them for extended periods without any issues. I did read one post where a guy finally killed a water cooled unit and it needed bearings not sure if he got those fixed or not. Anyway, I think it is clear the Bosch can not hold up to hours of continuous use on a CNC machine without some kind of upgrade in the bearings. By the way I pulled mine apart and wrote the bearing numbers down and searched ebay and found the bearings on ebay from a store called something like USA bearings & ??? anyway they bearings were cheap actually made in China and had about .012 runout when I put them on the bosch. I then ordered the real ones from Bosch which are expensive about $15 each and they worked good and the runout dropped to .002. So what did you actually do? thx

Russ
CNCMAN

[Horseman]

I have just slowed everything down. I keep the router speed slow around 12K and try to keep my feed rates at a point that the router will keep up with. So far I have been having no further router problems running the machine this way. I also have the constant velocity button turned on now too as was recommended by Steve Stevenson from General. I have been using the router a few hours each day for last couple months now without issue.

[bsteers]

A great replacement bearing is the NSK 6004VVC3E. These are rated to run at a much higher speed than the ones that come in the bosch.