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I have used in the past Routers and Air Cooled Spindles and both were very noisy. I also have used Water Cooled Spindles/VFD which are silent but the smallest I could get was 800W.
I would like to build a small tabletop CNC mill for hobby cuts in wood and aluminum with a small silent spindle and I think the best one will be belt driven. My available power is 110VAC, 15A.
Can you suggest one?
You could buy a Taig headstock and motor, which seems in scale with your machine. https://taigtools.com/product/comple...th-er-spindle/ Their motor runs on 110v power; you could buy one or use your own.
You can purchase a top loading, or a top and bottom loading collet style, spring loaded engraving spindle and drive it with a motor of your choice. These are typical to commercial engraving machines like New Hermes, Vision, Newing Hall, etc. The most common ones have been for 11/64" Top load tooling of which there is a wide variety available from companies like New Hermes or Anteres.net (Antares - Engraving Tools, Router Tools, Industrial Blanks, Collet Tools, & Vinyl Plotter Blades)
Top loading has a LOT of benefits as does the built in floating spring system. In fact, I would not bother with trying to engrave properly without one of these spindles.
https://www.visionengravers.com/prod...e-options.html
The above link shows you various spindles, the series 3 vision one being the most universal. They are also available as collet spindles where a hollow draw bolt can pull up a collet up to 1/4" diameter, on practically endless length tooling because it is a hollow spindle.
Sure wish we could find someone who would produce and offer full size routers with a hollow spindle/collet system.... I'd be a buyer !
I used to have a Taig headstock along with a Sherline 90VDC VS motor, an excellent set but the limitation was the low RPM. If I remember I was getting 9K RPM with a 3 step pulleys. If I will buy one I will go straight to Sherline since they offer the headstock, motor and VS controller as a set. Taig as far as I know only sell the headstock.
The links "Chris L" provided are new to me and I will be more than happy to explore.
I prefer to buy the spindle/motor as a set otherwise it's a problem form me to try and find the required pulleys/ adapters/bushings to mate them together.
Hi,
if the size/rigidity of a Taig headstock is sufficient then just replace the motor with something that can rev faster.
A small 1 or 2 hp three phase induction motor power by a VFD will go that fast enough that you risk blowing up the motor!!. I would not take an ordinary induction
motor beyond 150% to 200% of it synchronous speed for fear of damage....but that means 4500rpm to 6000rpm for a 3000rpm (nom) induction motor.
Running at higher speeds will mean that you have to change out bearing in both spindle and motor more regularly.
Craig
Thanks Craig but as I mentioned I prefer to buy the spindle + motor as a SET.
For you it may be easy to search for a motor but for me I have no idea of all the parameters needed to match a motor to a spindle.
Hi,
That restricts your choice hugely and ups the price by the same amount.Quote:
Thanks Craig but as I mentioned I prefer to buy the spindle + motor as a SET.
Craig
I'm aware of this Craig but since I don't have your knowledge, which I know from the past is quite extensive, there is no alternative except to put on this forum my post.
The Vision spindle (series 3) and probably most others are good for 30,000 rpm. Vision does sell a complete spindle with motor, mount and spindle and if you look long enough at the site you can find this picture > https://www.visionengravers.com/prod...verHead-TM.jpg
I've had a machine with that very same spindle setup some 30 years ago... yep, they still make it. It is a 90v DC motor which can be driven by a simple 120v to 90v common DC drive (minarik for example) giving you tons of power and full speed control.
Whether it would work for you depends on how "small" your desktop machine is going to be. That motor is particularly large and powerful, and perhaps not absolutely necessary. I've built numerous machines using those spindles (I usually scarf them up on Ebay reasonable (because few people actually know how valuable they are), and frankly, have run the gamut of motors on them. From the simple $30 on Amazon AC/DC variable speed sewing machine motor to generic surplus 90V motors via Minarik drives to this little bad boy brushless servo > https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Brus...1371381&sr=8-5
The pulleys are not difficult. The spindle already has one and it is around 1" in the belt V-Groove. BTW, they are driven with urethane round belts and no,,,, they really do not slip. Motor pulley can be anything you find in the diameter you want to target your spindle speed at.
For example, I have one spindle sitting here I put on a router now and then that is just a 10K rpm Dayton 115v motor with a 225" Diameter Pulley on a cheap old router speed control. It works fine as long as the speed is not too slow. Hhonestly, those brushless sewing machine servos are really nice because they have feedback allowing for awesome torque at lower speeds. I've got a spare one to swap in place as soon as I have time to build a bracket for it.
Many thanks Chris L for the useful link, much appreciated. I noticed in the picture the Vision spindle looks quite small but the motor is quite big and I will search more on that site.
The sewing machine motor also looks very interesting including the controller.
My tabletop machine will be around 26"x36" cutting area so I do have the space for the sewing machine motor. If I'm not mistaken the motor weights 11 Lbs and the controller another 11Lbs but there is no price on the link you sent me. I will search and find something similar.
Many thanks