[philbur]

Unfortunately putting 15,000 rpm bearings in a 3,000 rpm spindle doesn't give you a 15,000 rpm spindle. There are many factors that need to be taken care of. The easy bit is buying the bearings.

Phil

I would like to do engraving at some point do I as of now no.
I do youse plenty of smaller end mills for my hobby . 3/16 1/8.......
I understand what your saying cost of bearing vs cost of mill but then again I spent more in tooling than I did on the mill. If im going to do something ill do it correct.

I think Im going to pass on the column tilt and just get the y extension.

[Arich0908]

Unfortunately putting 15,000 rpm bearings in a 3,000 rpm spindle doesn't give you a 15,000 rpm spindle. There are many factors that need to be taken care of. The easy bit is buying the bearings.

Phil

Please explain further im all ears . This is my first mill my first build up . So I am very naive .

[TXFred]

I think you're asking for way too much from that little X1.

I did some engraving at work yesterday. The machine was a Haas TM-3 with a 7.5 horsepower motor. Sticker price is $33,000.00. But the spindle only goes to 4000 RPM.

It did the job just fine.

To get a spindle anywhere close to 15,000 rpm from Haas, we'd have to get the VF-2SSYT, which has a 12,000 RPM spindle. This machine sells for $65,000.00

So what you're plotting here is to add a $32,000.00 feature onto a $200 machine.

Without knowing what you plan to do with the machine, I cannot be certain. But it looks to me like you're about to spend a lot of money on your X1 for absolutely no benefit. Just get the machine to run 4 or 5k and you'll be fine.

Frederic

[philbur]

It's not that difficult to make a spindle that will run at 15,000 rpm. The trick is to make it sufficiently rigid for a milling spindle and at the same time get the bearings to survive a reasonable length of time. You may consider $5 deep groove bearings as consumable components, not many would consider $300 bearings in the same light. High-speed milling spindle bearings are incredibly precise components and they require an equal precise spindle housing and shaft etc, etc. In addition the bearing layout for a high-speed milling spindle, by necessity, needs to be more sophisticated than your average Chinese hobby mill spindle.

If you want to build a high-speed spindle for your mill you should start by studying spindle designs not bearing prices. Building it by trial and error can get very expensive.

Phil

Please explain further im all ears . This is my first mill my first build up . So I am very naive .