Recommendation for cheap chinese watercooled spindel with VFD

[flexbex]

Hey could anybody recommend me a good spindle for around 300$. It can also be a chinese one as long as you have good expereince with it. And maybe someone can explain me where the huge price difference comes from and if it is worse it. I could find spindles in the range of 100$ - 6000$ and more.

So maybe first about what I want to cut is mostly Plywood for up to 1cm and EPS foam. No metall. For the foam I want to use the biggest bit I can find. Which is 1/2 inch I guess. So the RPM won't be that high I guess.
And a bonus would be if the spindle would be watercooled and therefore be very quite.

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[ger21]

For $300, all you'll be able to get is a chinese spindle.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-WATER-C...item3aaf64f4c8

[jschoch]

ger21, wondering if you pick this for the specs or the seller or both?

[dharmic]

With these spindles, remember that the minimum? RPM is around 6000, so you rapidly find yourself hitting a max tool diameter limit. Should be ok on foam and ply though?

[ger21]

With these spindles, remember that the minimum? RPM is around 6000, so you rapidly find yourself hitting a max tool diameter limit.

There's no issue running large diameter bits at 12,000--15,000+ rpm, or even higher. As long as you keep the feedrate up, anddon't overload the spindle, there's no problems.

wondering if you pick this for the specs or the seller or both?

The specs on these spindles are all basically the same.
You do want the Huanyang VFD, and yes this is a reputable seller. I bought my VFD from them.

[flexbex]

There's no issue running large diameter bits at 12,000--15,000+ rpm, or even higher. As long as you keep the feedrate up, anddon't overload the spindle, there's no problems.



The specs on these spindles are all basically the same.
You do want the Huanyang VFD, and yes this is a reputable seller. I bought my VFD from them.

Thx for the help.
Still some questions:
What's the major downside of the Chinese spindle you recommended.
Is it very noisy. And what about the bearings. What happens if I have low feedrate but fast spindle. Can I do sth to improve the spindle?

[ger21]

What's the major downside of the Chinese spindle you recommended.

Same as the upside - they are cheap. Meaning they won't last forever. But many people get many years of use out of them.There really is no other downside.
They are very quiet.

What happens if I have low feedrate but fast spindle

You can burn up your bits, but that's true with any spindle, and is not the fault of the spindle.

No, you can't really improve the spindle, and there's no need to even try.

[flexbex]

Same as the upside - they are cheap. Meaning they won't last forever. But many people get many years of use out of them.There really is no other downside.
They are very quiet.



You can burn up your bits, but that's true with any spindle, and is not the fault of the spindle.

No, you can't really improve the spindle, and there's no need to even try.

Great thanks a lot.

[skrubol]

If you can't run a fast feed rate, you should try and use end mills with the lowest number of flutes possible (1 or 2.) 1-flute (also called o-flute sometimes, it's somebody's trademark I think,) work great for foam. If you need to do 3d routing on foam 2-flute is the way to go (there are no 1-flute spiral ball end mills that I know of.) These water cooled spindles can run slower (the air cooled versions really shouldn't,) but tend to have the torque drop off rather quickly at lower speeds.
For softwood, 12-24k RPM is no problem on 1/4" cutters. Hardwood you might want to stick to the lower end of that range.
If you plan on cutting plastics you may have issues with running too fast as they can melt.

[RCaffin]

Very biased opinion (Gerry might disagree with me!)
Take money for cheap Chinese spindle in hand
Flush it down toilet
Go and buy a better one.
The overall cost will be the same, but the time wasted and the pain will be much less.


Cheers

[dharmic]

Very. And Ger won’t be the only one. Because you’re wrong :-P


Sure, they’re probably not appropriate for a hard or continuously running commercial context.

But for occasional light use, the only hassle with em is the usual Chinese lack of consistency in quality control.

On my machine a half decent kraut spindle would have pushed the total machine price completely out of reach. The cheap and cheerful 2.2kW water cooled Chinesium special, though, has served me beautifully these last few years - German precision, quality and price tag would have been an exactly zero better fit to my needs.

As always: YMMV

[ger21]

Go and buy a better one.

You can by TEN (yes, 10) chinese spindles for the price of a better one. And many people get many years out of them. And if you're capable of replacing the bearings yourself, one or two may be all you ever need to buy.
A 2.2Kw Chinese spindle is less than $200. An HSD is over $2000. Most people get several years out of their chinese spindles. You do the math.
Yes, there are cheaper spindles than HSD's, but your still looking at 5 chinese spindles for the price of one Teknomotor, or others in a similar price range.

Fwiw, I've seen the bearings fail in less than 2 years on a lightly used brand new $7000 HSD spindle, with a $2000 repair bill.

[RCaffin]

A great subject for a passionate argument late in the evening. Rage on!
Personally, (and I do mean 'for me'), I put quality and performance over cost.
YMMV.

I drive a short wheel base diesel LandCruiser - with a winch. A friend had a Russian Lada 4WD, and I did notice that it was simply not as capable on rough country. I asked him about it, and his reply was a laugh and the comment that Ladas were for decorating (lights, bull bars, etc), not for serious 4WD work.

Cheers
Roger

[ger21]

The only perceived difference is probably slightly less power. Very few people can justify the cost, especially if you are building your own machine to save money.Lots of other places on the machine where that money willdo a lotmore good, imo.

[dharmic]

A great subject for a passionate argument late in the evening. Rage on!
Personally, (and I do mean 'for me'), I put quality and performance over cost.
YMMV.

I drive a short wheel base diesel LandCruiser - with a winch. A friend had a Russian Lada 4WD, and I did notice that it was simply not as capable on rough country. I asked him about it, and his reply was a laugh and the comment that Ladas were for decorating (lights, bull bars, etc), not for serious 4WD work.

Cheers
Roger

I hear you, I've got a troopy. But extending that example, your shorty is a tenth the price of an AMG C43 which are widely regarded as a far superior off roader to the tojos. So why don't you have the merc? Is it because it's way out of your budget to purchase &/- maintain? Or because you will never use that extra capability to a point where it's worth having?