Spindle Drive Upgrade comments?

[Freddy Bastard]

Anybody got the new spindle drive upgrade from Tormach? I would like to hear comments. I plan to order one soon.

Thank's

[Hiredgun]

i love the upgrade gives me 5140 rpm very fast accel and brake. the extra 640rpm or so really is nice on aluminum. way better than the old vfd.

[Freddy Bastard]

they says 5000 rpm in the add. So you run it at 5140 rpm with no problems?

[Hiredgun]

yes no problems thats how mine was setup to run from tormach.

[thackman]

I installed mine in a little under two hours. The instructions were very clear and it wasn't very complex. The only issue that I ran into was that some of the wires were to short so I had to re-route a few things. I also had some software issues but those should be resolved with this latest patch.

Overall the speed and acceleration of the spindle is impressive. I ordered the upgrade with the machine becuase I plan on doing a lot of work in AL and plastice so it seemed to make sense. Lately I've made a lot of calls into RobbJack and Onsrud and found out all of the premium cutters for AL and UHMW have some extremely high chiploads. For most pocketing operations they were recommending spindle speeds in the 3k-4k range and a full 60ipm for feed.

I'm still curious how much horsepower is available at the spindle at 5k. The guy at RobbJack was saying that 1.5hp wasn't really enough for a 3/8" endmill. He recommended I use a 1/4" endmill in AL w/ a .25" doc and that it would still be feed limited so I would have to back down the spindle speed.