[Jeff-Birt]

So you guys would suggest a higher-speed motor to get me up around 10,000 RPM

Uh...the top pulley speed range with the current motor on the CNC version of the Taig mill IS 10,000 RPM. If you have an older type motor than that type is slower. If your just wanting 10K RPM, upgrade to the newer motor from Taig.

[Burn]

Uh...the top pulley speed range with the current motor on the CNC version of the Taig mill IS 10,000 RPM. If you have an older type motor than that type is slower. If your just wanting 10K RPM, upgrade to the newer motor from Taig.

I do have the 10k RPM spindle, but a 1/3HP motor seems weak. Anyone care to disagree? I would REALLY like to be able to drive a 1.5" face mill.

[fretsman]

When you say "weak", are you stalling the motor or slipping the belts?

Dave

[Burn]

I'd say that the motor wouldn't be able to drive that big a load (would stall or wouldn't spin fast enough for the inserts); Although the V-belt seems like it wouldn't be able to handle the load placed on the spindle, either. So it would require a new belt kit to drive the new motor (or direct drive it if it's 10k RPM).

[fretsman]

Maybe I missed it but you really never mentioned what material you were cutting and what types of DOC you're after, did you?

If it's aluminum, I would just suggest trying a beefier cog belt and pulley system first to see what kind of results you'd get from the 10,000 RPM motor.

Dave

[Burn]

Maybe I missed it but you really never mentioned what material you were cutting and what types of DOC you're after, did you?

If it's aluminum, I would just suggest trying a beefier cog belt and pulley system first to see what kind of results you'd get from the 10,000 RPM motor.

Dave

I am going to be doing cuts in copper, delrin and aluminum. Flood cooling to evacuate copper chips seems like a necessity.

trying a beefier cog belt and pulley system first

You mean the motor that comes stock on the Taig?

I guess I have two options: The 10kRPM motor that japroach suggested (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpo...6&postcount=18)

That would be able to be direct driven since it's 10k RPM already. I would just need to devise a coupling system.

Either that, or I can try upgrading the pulley system using the stock taig motor already.

[Jeff-Birt]

You won't be wanting to try and spin a 1.5" bit at 10K RPM! That is much too fast! If you are wanting to face stock a fly cutter is probably a better choice.

[Burn]

You won't be wanting to try and spin a 1.5" bit at 10K RPM! That is much too fast! If you are wanting to face stock a fly cutter is probably a better choice.

Well no, I wouldn't be trying to spin a 1.5" face mill at 10k RPM I would use 10k for things like aluminum and/or copper. I am a beginning machinist, so I need to find out appropriate speeds in copper and alu...I imagine a lot of that is only going to come from experience.

I do have a fly cutter right now, but how fast would I be looking to spin it?

[fretsman]

Well no, I wouldn't be trying to spin a 1.5" face mill at 10k RPM I would use 10k for things like aluminum and/or copper. I am a beginning machinist, so I need to find out appropriate speeds in copper and alu...I imagine a lot of that is only going to come from experience.

I do have a fly cutter right now, but how fast would I be looking to spin it?

Ok, now we're getting somewhere.

I personally think you should use a flycutter and learn more about feeds and speeds first, before taking on a 1HP motor conversion. Using a feeds and speeds calculator can give you an "idea" of what you want but not quite, because the Taig is so much smaller than the average knee mill etc.

Just use the flycutter (learn how to sharpen it as well) and take a little bit at first, and check your feeds and speeds and learn from there.

Seriously, I have no idea how much you know, but I think you should learn the basics first ;o)

Dave

[allenj20]

Just so you know the 1/4 HP motor from Taig does 10K rpm see here. http://www.taigtools.com/mmill.html The CR has the 1/4 HP motor and it goes from 1k rpm to 10K rpm.

[Burn]

Just so you know the 1/4 HP motor from Taig does 10K rpm see here. http://www.taigtools.com/mmill.html The CR has the 1/4 HP motor and it goes from 1k rpm to 10K rpm.

I'm well aware that the 1/4 HP motor setup does 10k RPM I own one. My intention is beefing up the motor, so that it still spins at 10K RPM but has a lot more grunt to push a face mill at, say, 6,000 RPM.

[Jeff-Birt]

You probably won't want to spin a big bit at that speed! You really need to spend some sime with a machinist calculator to get a feel for what feeds and speeds you should be trying to use.

[awetmore]

I do have the 10k RPM spindle, but a 1/3HP motor seems weak. Anyone care to disagree? I would REALLY like to be able to drive a 1.5" face mill.

You are asking too much for a lightweight little mill. My manual mill is a 900lb knee mill (Grizzly G3102) and a 1.5" face mill is appropriately sized for it. The Taig is 10% of the weight and can't do it. Likewise I wouldn't run a 3/4" end mill in the Taig cutting steel, even though I do it fairly often in my knee mill.

It isn't a question of speed and motor power. You need rigidity.

As someone else has mentioned, light passes with a fly cutter are much more appropriate.

[sp1nm0nkey]

You're not listening.

What you're suggesting is like putting a jet engine in a scooter. No, you aren't going to be able to beef up that scooter enough such that it can accept a jet engine. Yes you can mount that motor. Yes you can attach the face mill. The second you take a cut the mill will fold in half. Just take a step back. Get a set of end mills from 1/8" to 3/8" and get a feel for appropriate feeds and speeds.

[Jeff-Birt]

Hey burn, keep in mind that nobody is getting on your case here. We just don't want to see you spend a bunch of money and wind up damaging a good mill. Each size of mill has a selection of tooling it does the best with, I would not use a 1.5" face mill on my Taig anymore than I would try to use a 0.020" end mill on my BP Series 2. Well, the BP has all the power and rigidity needed but not the feel needed for tiny bits unless you use one of those feather touch drill chucks. The Taig excells at using tiney bits though.

[allenj20]

Have you tried the Taig fly cutter that was designed for the machine? Nice thing about the Taig tooling and accessories as that they are pretty affordable.

http://www.positiveflow.com/taigacc.htm

Spend like $20 and give it a try. Also if your machine is CNC try just using a 3/8 end mill for facing should work fine.

[Arich0908]

Your right I could have indeed been misinterpreting his response. My apologies

I really don't think "Arich0908" was suggesting that.

I think he was just saying that "Burn" can put the Taig back to stock configuration if the motor didn't work out for him.

Dave

I wasn't suggesting to ruin a mill the return it to a vendor.
All I was saying if he didnt like the out come of adding a new motor then all that would be lost is some aluminum and time. He could return it to the way it was originally when bought.
I like projects like this it keeps the ole brain going and gives me something to do. Im adding a 2.5hp dc motor to my SX1 micro mill now . I just added a z spacer 4+ inches ..
Ide do it. Thats me though.

[Isplat]

I have the taig 2019 and it is CNC'd. I like it very much. However, it could use a larger motor. At higher spindle speeds there isn't as much torque available, more like 1/3 of the torque at the motors rated speed ~3600 RPM (not exact - from memory).

I have fly cut with the Taig and it will surface most things at 1-3 mils all day. As others have mentioned, a 3/8" end mill or even 1/2" with a 3/8" shank can do the roughing/facing first as they can remove more material per pass. Then finish with a fly cutter. On the Taig, you really need to learn to adjust it and TRAM it in order to have a nice finish when fly cutting.

Many people have put D.C. "treadmill" motors on them as they are more lightweight than the motor you were looking at and can be controlled via Mach3 with add on electronics. I have a motor I plan on controlling with a KBIC-125 (frequently on eBay) for $30-40.

The nice thing about DC is you can get some speed control out of the controller electronics for less $$ than a VFD and 3phase AC motor. It also opens the door to CNC spindle speed control.

I plan on a conversion like this myself, I'm hoping to reduce the belt changes I need to make.

One reason for "over sizing" the motor that no one has mentioned is lower speed torque/power. For a given HP, the torque/power output of a motor is proportional to speed the motor is turning. Running lower speeds than the motor is rated at will mean less power than the rated ouput. When/if you decide you want to speed control the motor via some form of speed controller like VFD (AC) or PWM style (DC) motor controller; you will find that extra HP helps widen the range of speeds one can run without having to change pulley ratios.

I would suggest you spend some time at www.cartertools.com as Nick's site has many such conversions and many answers to your questions.

As for a face mill, there isn’t a standard for the Taig because they are generally too big for the machine and no one has had great success with them on the Taig. A company called Spillage made a shell mill adaptor at one time and Nick’s site above has a review of it.

As many have stated, running a large face mill or shell mill will not work as well on a Taig as a machine with "mass". The "mass" is generally attributed to giving the bigger machine "stiffness" in a mechanical sense. It is this "stiffness" that keeps the machine from "chattering" and or losing TRAM when cutting. It also generally is safer as things are less likely to fail due to forces involved in cutting.

I think most folks here are just trying to reset your expectations about what the Taig mill can do "safely" and what you can accomplish without getting frustrated because things don't work as "hoped."

-Ian

[ShawnsM]

Thought I'd throw this out there for fun, I JUST finished attaching my 2.5hp 30k RPM variable speed Bosch to my Taig lathe for the heck of it. It works, more vibration but thats because I half assed the mount, I haven't dared taking it over #3 on the dial as it is truly scary there. I will say though, that though this is just silly overkill and was just done for fun, the Taig motor for the lathe REALLY sucks IMO. The one this this motor DOES give me all I want of is Torque without question.

I really am debating direct driving the spindle head to try to eliminate some of the vibration, though my surface finishes look just fine. I think the OP really was saying the taig motors lack good torque and even if they had it the belts can't handle it.

My CNC Taig mill is most certainly getting a new motor, I like the current 1/4 on it MUCH better than the stock junk motor on the lathe, so realistically I may migrate the 1/4 hp motor from my CNC to the Lathe and look for an infinitely adjustable 10K minimum, nice torque, and it would be nice to have an electric brake/on the fly reverse to put on the CNC Mill.

The mini Bosch 1hp is awfully tempting, size wise its perfect. And IMO Bosch makes damn nice gear.

Well, I'm off to make a couple of tachometers lol. It would be nice to know how fast I've been turning at this week. Last bit of info, make damn sure your motor/pulleys are PERFECTLY aligned, if they are ever so slightly off it will look like a much worse problem, and if you ignore it, then it will be a MUCH worse problem.

Shawn