My router went today on my old DIY table need advise

[ger21]

I was a bit surprised by the "ceramic bearings" note in the description. They must be some really cheap bearings, as ceramic bearings alone can cost far more than that spindle costs.

Ceramic bearings are very common on high end high speed spindles. A lot of spindle manufacturers will use steel bearings on 18,000 rpm spindles, but switch to ceramic for their 24,000 rpm spindles

[Gary-Wiant]

One of my questions to RATTM MOTOR was are the bearings replaceable by me or does a technition need to replace them and I was told they are user replaceable, I'm sure they could be lying about that and the quality of the bearings but hopefully this spindles lasts me and lambodesigns a long time.

[sparkness]

spindle bearings sets off ebay from NSK will cost you 100 per set and you need 2 sets. spindle bearing replacement is a delicate operation

[ger21]

And you may need to make some tools to get it apart.

[CYoung]

HI Gerry,
I am upgrading my CNC Router from a standard Dewalt Router "spindle" to an air cooled 2.2K spindle. I look the one you provided the link to (above), but there is very little documentation on ebay showing how to wire and control this thing. I sent a message to SolarJean asking for user manual, wiring diagram, etc. Can you tell me how well these products are documented?
Thanks, Craig

[ger21]

The VFD comes with a printed manual. You can also download it here:
http://www.hy-electrical.com/bf/inverter.pdf

There are a ton of threads here and around the internet on wiring them and setting them up.

[CYoung]

Thanks Gerry,
Just starting my research and thought I would get a jump start from you.
THanks, Craig

[Gary-Wiant]

Here's my update,I ordered the 0-10 card from IM Service back on February 2nd and I'm still waiting on the 0-10 card.
IM Service has put me off several times telling me it would ship in a couple days over & over then last Friday the said it would ship out by
Last Saturday, but expect it the end of this week due to presidents day. I received a tracking number & it keeps saying that USPS is waiting on it to be dropped off. I called today they said it will go out tomorrow... we'll see.
I would have cancelled this and ordered from someone else a couple weeks ago but this is made specifically with DeskCNC & includes documentation on configuring DeskCNC to work with it & setting up the spindle.

I have a question in the meantime. What is the best way to make sure the router is setting square to the table? I believe it is called trimming it.

Thanks

[lambodesigns]

Gary, I'm sure there are better ways but I put the longest bit I have in and use a machine square to get the bit as square to the table as I can from all sides. Once you have it square my check is to put the bit in that I use to surface the table and take a light pass to surface. If it gives a smooth surface that I can't feel anything from one pass to the other I call it good.

I have everything sitting at home but I'm having some issues with getting UCCNC to control the spindle . I downloaded "Spindletalker" and have the RS485 controlling the spindle perfectly using it as well as being able to manually control the spindle with the VFD. Weird issue but I got to the point I could control On/Off with UCCNC but not the speed with a windows 10 laptop (UCCNC 1.2037) but UCCNC would crash on my Vista desktop I use for the CNC. That was right before I left for Denver for a few days so I haven't been able to work on it any further. Hasn't been my week for computers either.... I started with two other win10 laptops and neither one of them will run 1.2047 UCCNC (runs slow like the win10 issue prior to 1.2039). One laptop is a cheap hp and the other is a MSI high end one with a Nvidia 1050TI graphics card that should run UCCNC with out breathing hard. The UCCNC tech has been very helpful but at this point we are both stumped.

I will say the spindle appears to be well made and is so much quieter than the router. Looking forward to cutting the first job with it.

[Gary-Wiant]

Lambodesigns, thanks for the reply & update, im excited to get this installed & start using it. I really wanted the parts here today because my buddy that is the engineer is up here this weekend shop we could get it all installed while our wives are visiting but now I may need to wait a couple weeks until he has another long weekend

[Gary-Wiant]

We finally had a chance to start to install the spindle & VFD and when we opened the connection for the spindle there are only 3 connectors so that means no ground / earth connector. What have you guys done with this?

[lambodesigns]

Mine had a screw under the cover for the ground besides the 3 connectors for power. I also grounded the shield back at the star ground I have ran outside to a rod in ground. As a EE I was always taught to only ground a shield on one end.... witnessed many an argument over grounding on one end vs both;-0 I always went with the guy signing my paycheck and it seemed to work well so I figure why change now. I even ran it for a bit without the shield grounded and didn't seem to have any noise problems.

I finally got mine up and running. Such an improvement over the router. I never did get it to work with my old vista machine so I punted and ordered a refurbed win10 pc from newegg. Considering what less that $100 will get you I should have bought a new pc a long time ago.

So far the only thing I don't like is UCCNC shuts off the spindle when you hit the softlimit. Normally I don't run at the limits but I was surfacing the table so I was going to the edges and I had to turn the softlimits off to be able to set the x and y axis to 0. Even if you just turn the softlimit on or off it shuts off the spindle. Seems like shutting the spindle off and not also stopping the motors from turning is a bad thing. I recently started using UCCNC and I hadn't done anything to hit the softlimits. Maybe someone knows a way around this?

[Gary-Wiant]

Ok thanks I didn't notice the extra screw but I didn't look real close at that.

My DeskCNC control panel Has a toggle switch that I can flip to turn off limit switches so I don't have to really worry about that.

Glad to hear you like the router / VFD combo

[A_Camera]

We finally had a chance to start to install the spindle & VFD and when we opened the connection for the spindle there are only 3 connectors so that means no ground / earth connector. What have you guys done with this?

Mine had a 4-pin connector but the earth was not connected. The motor tube had threaded hole in the middle of the tube, I connected the earth there with a lug and soldered the other end to the fourth pin so that I can easily remove the motor cable if I want to.If I were you I'd change the 3-pin connector to a four pin one and would connect the earth somewhere where it is appropriate, in a way which is acceptable. I have seen some scary examples... which are definitely NOT good, but otherwise I think this is the easy part.

[Gary-Wiant]

Mine is the "new & improved" Square spindle it doesnt have a pin connector. The side has a square cover that comes off & there are rather heavy duty posts that tighten with a nut.

[A_Camera]

Mine is the "new & improved" Square spindle it doesnt have a pin connector. The side has a square cover that comes off & there are rather heavy duty posts that tighten with a nut.

If it is the one you linked to then it seems to be a very nice spindle with active cooling. I will definitely buy something similar in case my current one stops working. Anyway, in that case you have an easy task, there are at least four screws which are suitable as earth connection. Just add a wire with a lug and connect to one of the four attaching the plastic box to the aluminium housing. Perhaps there is an even better way, I don't know how it looks like under the plastic cover.

[Gary-Wiant]

Ok so after a couple months being down & out (thank God we don't make our money from router jobs)

My question is with the vfd showing 0 - 400hz how do I know whatRPM the spindle is there a chart or something I can use to convert hz. To rpm?

Thanks

[ger21]

200Hz = 12000 rpm
400HZ = 24000 rpm

You can also change the display to show RPM. Look in the manual.

[lambodesigns]

Mine shows the RPM on the VFD after I turn it on. Not sure if that was something I programmed or it was defaulted to it. I'm sure someone knows how to set it up off the top of their head. I think it is just a linear relationship from frequency to rpm though.... 400hz = 24k rpm. 200hz = 12k rpm

BTW... love the spindle and something I should have done a long time ago. It even gave me the incentive to upgrade my Z-axis from a R&P to a lead screw. It is a little slower for rapids but the accuracy/stability is an order of magnitude better now. Should be great for when I finally get around to building CNC #2 using CNC#1. Learned a lot of things not to do by building the first one

- - - Updated - - -

Dang... gotta be quick around here

[Gary-Wiant]

Well I figured 200 was 12,000 rpm but i was wondering what to do if i wanted 1
Some in else.

I'll look at the manual and see if I can figure out which program I need to change. If anyone know how to set it off the tip of their head let me know.