Router or dremel? - Page 4


View Poll Results: If you only have an option of fitting one machine to the gantry, what would it be?

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  • Router

    334 80.10%
  • Dremel

    41 9.83%
  • Something else (please specify what)

    42 10.07%
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Thread: Router or dremel?

  1. #61
    Member Mike F's Avatar
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    Martin,

    Cheers, I appreciate that.

    Mike



  2. #62
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    Martin,

    I have just received some prices from Unimatic for the two spindles, UFM 500 and 1050. Unimatic want £240 & £290 respectively plus VAT and £12 delivery. If my maths is correct that makes the totals, with delivery, £294 and £352.75. This still seems a little pricey to me despite it being lower than the price I paid for the 500 some three years ago, which was £345.

    Did you also see the other, beefier spindles, on the Isel site? Wonder what the price is on those?

    Mike



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    Dear Mike,

    Yes, I knew that the 1050 watt spindle costs £290 +VAT in the UK. I'm interested in the price in Germany. Here's why.... a 1/4" collet for the 1050 watt motor costs £22 from Unimatic, but it costs 15.5 euros in Germany. In other words, it is more than DOUBLE the price in Britain. If the mark-up on the spindle is of the same magnitude, buying in Germany looks awfully attractive.

    Best wishes,

    Martin



  4. #64
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    Martin,

    I have always suspected that the Unimatic prices were somewhat inflated but, judging from your 'collet' experience, I was not expecting that much

    What is it that someone said about 'rip off Britain'?

    If you are right, and the spindles are virtually half price in Germany, I too will take advantage of a friend with property in Germany.

    Are you just enquiring about the 1050 or the other, bigger spindles too? I could be very interested in one of the bigger ones for doing some heavier work in aluminium. I have used the 500 on aluminium but you do have to take fairly shallow cuts, anything more than 0.5mm at 10mm/sec proves to be a little too much. Having said that, it is an excellent product, extremely well made and reasonably quiet.

    Mike



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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike F View Post
    Martin,



    Are you just enquiring about the 1050 or the other, bigger spindles too? I could be very interested in one of the bigger ones for doing some heavier work in aluminium. Mike
    Dear Mike,

    Sorry for trhe delay. I have been away. If you let me know the stock numbers of the items you are interested in on the www.i-mes.de website, I'll find out prices. My German-speaking pal will phone next week.

    Regards

    Martin



  6. #66
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    Martin,

    Thanks for responding. I would be interested in prices for the UFM 1050, MAx2.05 and the MAxSK20. The last two may well be out of my price range but it would be nice to know what to save up for The last one is capable of supporting automatic tool changing and that is certainly one of my ultimate aims.

    Thanks again,

    Mike



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    My two cents:

    Definitely a router.

    Look at them with an eye to how easy is it to change tools? One wrench with a spindle lock or two wrenches?

    Suggest one that accepts and has available both 1/4 and 1/2 inch collets. The 1/2 shanks are more rigid, obviously. Also, you may want to use the router outside of the machine, if you want to run panel raising bits, cope and stick, etc, you will only find those bits in 1/2 shank.

    Noise is an issue too, right now I have 6 Porter Cables around here. I heard the Bosch whispering at the woodworkers show last weekend, gonna get me one of those as soon as practical.

    I would NOT get a roto zip type tool. My experience with them has been pitiful. First off, no really great way to grip them securely. Secondly, they just feel cheap.

    Good Luck!



  8. #68
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    What a sweet looking machine!
    The widgetmaster rocks!

    1 set of plans to go, please.



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    Lots of recomendations. Could I add another criteria.

    NOISE!

    If you have a super silent spindle, 500w-1000w tell me about it.

    That way I could run long long jobs unattended through the night without upseting the locals.



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    I skipped to the end of this...but did anyone mention the 2 1/4 HP Hitachi M12VC?

    Easy to clamp, built in 8-25K speed control, maintains constant torque at low RPMS, and for me, most of all well balanced, quiet, and tight.

    I love this router....1/2 and 1/4 collets, $10 adapter allows me to use the smallest of bits with an 1/8" shank.

    I milled 3/4" Precision plate T6061 24"x24" for 22 hours straight. No problems.



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    Davidh,

    I used to have a water cooled 750W High frequency Westwind air bearing spindle, 1/8 pnuematic collet, and 125,000 RPM max.

    At 75,000 RPM, there was NO vibration, and could not hear it, unless I turned off my room A/C.

    I used it for HSM on aluminum. I felt like I had a piece of NASA, I miss it.

    I sold it.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike F View Post
    Martin,

    I have just received some prices from Unimatic for the two spindles, UFM 500 and 1050. Unimatic want £240 & £290 respectively plus VAT and £12 delivery. If my maths is correct that makes the totals, with delivery, £294 and £352.75. This still seems a little pricey to me despite it being lower than the price I paid for the 500 some three years ago, which was £345.

    Did you also see the other, beefier spindles, on the Isel site? Wonder what the price is on those?

    Mike
    The UFM 1050 costs 352EUR incl taxes plus shipping from www.cnc-plus.de, that is almost 90£ cheaper than in GB before shipping!



  13. #73
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    I also purchased the Hatachi M12VC like foam27 and found the same advantages. Bought it from an Ebay store for $75.00 shipped to my door. It's very quiet, vibration free, and powerful.



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    Well I've used the Proxxon IB/E a few times. Worked good for MDF and PCB milling, though would like a faster spindle to cut PCBs with a feed rate > 800mm/min. Aluminum has been ok at 0.25mm deep of cut using a 3.0mm 2 flute end mill and feedrate of 400mm/min. I did try a 1mm cut, but the motor stalled and the bit snapped. Not that impressed with the power for cutting aluminum.

    Unfortunately it gave a loud pop and died tonight. Only had it for a month, and hasn't seen much usage. Opened it up and found a track on the PCB had vapourised. Repaired the track, but not it just trips the circuit breaker. Rather pissed, as this is what I'd expect from a ****ty Dremel. Not something that cost 5 times as much Wonder how I'II go with the warranty now... I had to at least try and fix it though, I was suppose to finish something for a customer today. Very disappointing.



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    sorry for the newbie question, but why can't an ordinary drill be used in a CNC gantry?



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    Quote Originally Posted by amazingahmed View Post
    sorry for the newbie question, but why can't an ordinary drill be used in a CNC gantry?
    A drill could be used if you were just drilling holes, but they're not designed for lateral loads or milling operations. Just up and down movements.

    I suspect that runout would be considerable and cutting slots or pockets would make for a very short, inaccurate tool life. Also, the low speed could be restrictive.

    Dremels, die grinders, wood routers or proper spindles are a much better choice - naturally depending on the application and budget.

    Steve



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    Quote Originally Posted by stevespo View Post

    Dremels, die grinders, wood routers or proper spindles are a much better choice - naturally depending on the application and budget.

    Steve
    Thanks for the clarification.
    But the die grinder I found operates at 27000 RPM fixed speed. Is that good?
    Can I mount an end mill or a drill bit on a die grinder?



  18. #78
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    I have no experience with die grinders, but I believe people are using them successfully for routing and milling operations. Please search the forums or seek our other advice.

    In general, 27,000 RPM is a good speed for router bits in soft materials (wood). Whether you can run an endmill at that speed would depend on the material, cutter geometry, etc. I have good results running standard 2 and 4 flute end mills at 24,000 RPM in a router, but this is in small sizes and cutting soft materials (wood, pearl).

    Twist drill bits are not meant to be run that fast and would be very dangerous at those speeds. There are charts available for material and drilling speeds and they range more from 100-3000 RPM, depending on the material and the size of the bit. Please be careful...

    Steve



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    As a recent 'lurker', for my first post, can I ask a question ?
    I am assembling bits to build my first machine, and looking at a router to use found one I fancy, but it has a speed of 30,000rpm. Is this too fast for general use ?, I suppose I could add an electronic speed control to it for slower speeds but it seems economical for a first job
    spec is :
    PROFESSIONAL HI-SPEC SPIRAL SAW 600W 600w motor-30,000RPM. Supplied with 3.2 & 6.35mm connection collets. 43mm standard collar.Dust hose adaptor. Spindle lock. Dust extraction facility & blade changing spanner.
    I have a driver pcb kit coming from hobbycnc and have routout software ready to install, just want to get a pc freed-up to use before I set to on the frame and mechanics but advice on the router would be appreciated (a lot of them are crazy prices in UK).
    TF



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    I looked at routers but nothing decent available in Australia, they are all plunge routers, not good for cnc machines.
    So I will be using a 750 watt Makita die grinder. It has variable speed and 1/4" collet and it is readily available.
    Gary.



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Router or dremel?

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