Originally Posted by
joeavaerage
Hi,
yep, the problem is that highspeed/low torque spindles are a very poor choice for steel or indeed any material or process that requires high torque.
I have two spindles, a little German made 800W 24000rpm asynchronous spindle.....and this I use day in and day out and have done for ten years....simply brilliant. I might have
thought it expensive when I bought it but it has repaid me many, many times over.
It hopeless for steel though. To that end I built another spindle based on a second hand 1.8kW (6.1Nm cont, 18Nm overload, 3500rpm) Allen Bradley servo mated to an ER25 toolholder
in angular contact bearings. It has proven very useful for steel, stainless etc...even if it sees only a small fraction of the use that my little highspeed spindle gets. I've been using it for about
four-five years. Here comes the tragic part, I had it sitting in the bottom of my machine when not in use but it was getting doused in coolant.....and like a f******g idiot I let the coolant
get into and wreck the optical encoder....extremely disappointed with myself. I have found another....but just have not been able to save up the funds to get it....about $600NZD.
Lesson: low speed/high torque spindles are like gold......treat them with respect.
Craig