Cheap 1500W Chinese spindle, experiences?

[matth]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=015

Does anyone have any experience with this spindle or have comment?

I have a homebrew aluminium gantry router with a 3HP round body Dewalt router for the bigger jobs but I have started to do lihtophanes in acrylic and some aluminium jobs as well so I am looking of a small powerfull highspeed spindle.

[matth]

Nobody had their hands on one of these then?

If I buy one (see if I can wrestle the money off the wife) then I'll post some information.
I am going to contact the seller and see if they can provide some more pictures and info.

[ger21]

You are aware that you'll need a VFD to run that, right?

[123CNC]

Gerry,

Surprisingly that listing says 'inverter/controller' included in the set.

Carry on soldier, and report back.

[ger21]

Yep, I missed that when I glanced through. That's a pretty good price, then.

[matth]

According to the seller he is currently having the manual and spec sheet translated and will be posting this info on the auction.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for this.

[matth]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/a-air-cooled-s...742.m153.l1262

The seller has now loaded some more pictures, looks very interesting.

[Al_The_Man]

I see someone got one with high run-out, but he promised to put it right.
You could contact one of the previous sellers to find out their experience.
Al.

[matth]

That's a good call AL, I think i'll do it as I am considering one of these spindles.
It looks like this is a KL-1500 cnc spindle that kelinginc use on their machines.

[tgrandahl]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man I see someone got one with high run-out, but he promised to put it right. You could contact one of the previous sellers to find out their experience. Al.

I too am considering one of these spindles, however have been bothered by the lack of experience. I contacted every user that had posted feedback for a spindle and have heard back from two.

I actually purchased the .8Kw spindles. Three of them. We have about 160 hours on the first spindle. There is no data or instructions included in the package. This is not a problem for the spindle but the features of the inverter are unavailable. Not a problem if you only want to run at one speed and don't want to be able to turn on or off remotely. We have orderd ac inverters from Automation direct. We use the spindles on an internal grinder and run at 24000 rpm. My only ***** is the collet is to be an ER 11 but the ER 11's we can buy in the states do not match the spindle nut. The included 6mm collet works fine but we need a 1/4 inch collet for our grinding pins. I have purchased an air cooled from another Ebay vendor and it was crude in comparison to the water cooled spindles. The water cooled spindles should work great for a router. The spindle is actually nothing more than a 400hz three phase 2 pole motor with a hollow shaft to accept the collet. When the bearings fail they can easly be replaced with as high a quality as you desire. If you can obtain english instructions for the inverters they are an ok value. Also if you obtain instructions please pass them on to me. I have two that are not being used for lack of instruction.

and the second member

I am still in the drawing stage for my machine and have not had time to fire up the spindle yet. The components themselves look to be of decent quality but I will not be able to give a real answer until I start cutting which should be by the end of January. I was a little unhappy with them describing the collet setup as ER20 when in fact it is an ER16 setup with a max shank size of 10mm. You may well find the following website useful http://www.cnc-technik-madreiter.at/ This is a European company using the 3kW version of the motor in a range of machines. This unit does have th ER20 nose if you require this. I think you may be able to get it direct from the following company ( I found them after doing some post auction research ) http://www.made-in-china.com/showroo...3-0KW-20-.html You can also find these units (2.2 kW) in the States at something of a mark up from the following http://www.kelinginc.net/CNCSpindleandController.html

All that said the spindle appears to be in use on a number of the smaller Chinese ready built CNCs and can really only be considered a bargain at the price. I can live with the 10mm shank size for the uses I have in mind. I received no setup instructions for the freq, however after a bit of digging I have found a PDF of the manual. You will need a braking resistor and possibly a set of HF filters, I am checking on this at the moment.

I am going to try to get a copy of this manual too and will post a copy if it do. If it is in Chinese I live with an exchange student who can translate most of the information anyways.

I am most concerned about the collet issues, i am considering the 2.2Kw spindle and would expect it to come with an ER20 collet. I messaged the manufacture.

Yes, we can grarantee that this spindle with ER20 COLLET. We have two types of collets ER16 AND ER20 for this kind of spindle motor. We Also have 3kw water-cooled spindle, The Best price: 460.00 USD without VFD. But the shipping cost is higher to your place: 118.00 USD because it is too weight.

I also emailed him asking about any guarantee or warranty on the spindle.

The spindle is similar to the Keling. Yes we Guarantee on the spindle for repairing free in our domestic market. But the shipping cost is much much higher for world shipping. Thank you very much for your understanding!

I am finding more and more information but what bothers me is inconsistencies and things that could get lost in translation. I might try to get my room mate to email him and see if we can communicate better in native language for them, he declined providing me with a phone number because his oral English is too weak.

However what bothers me the most is this. The ebay auction for the 2.2 kw spindle states dimensions of 80x210mm, looking at the Keling website, there 2.2Kw spindle has dimensions 100x252mm. Now looking at the ebay vendors other spindle listings i see the 3kW spindle supposedly has dimensions of 100x250mm!
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-water-cooled-8...742.m153.l1262

Even the made in china link posted does not have consistent information with these other listings. I just want a way to insure i will receive a 2.2Kw spindle with an ER20 collet...

So this was a long post, when your done digesting all this let me know what you think. My room mate will be back in China over the holiday break so i may want to take advantage of that to same on some shipping.

~Tyler

[tgrandahl]

I just ran into a good thread over on a wood working forum, some satisfied customers and some information about the VFD's. However once again there is some talk of wrong collet sizes being received.

I think i am going to have to directly let the seller know I want an ER20 collet if / when making the purchase and have paypal back it. Anyways take a look if you want.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=75846

[endgrainguy]

I have one of the 2.2 kw water cooled on order now too, after being assured it is an ER-20 collet. I"ll let you all know how it works. I didn't get his inverter, so I can get support for inverter. Probably buy from Factorymation (They're Chinese made too.....). Actually that combo is cheaper than his! I'm concerned especially about electrical interference from VFD on the xyx motion. If anyone has done an installation of this kind and can recommend paraphenelia to minimize those problems I"d love to hear about it.