[Rajpage]

Hi there, this is my first post here. Hope i'm in the right section, but here goes!

I've just built this!...









(You may have to open these in a new window...)

6mm Aluminium base, 30mm thick HDPE blocks, bla bla bla... similar to the lumenlab micRos.

I want to use it to mill various things, but mainly, aluminium, acrylic, HDPE, and most importantly being an electronics student, PCBs!!!

The spindle you see is a old old old Dremel moto-flex I got off ebay for £30. It's a 110W motor fixed to 25,000 RPM. No good for cutting acrylic?

Thing is it's also very noisy and not variable. I'm a student and this sits in my bedroom screaming away, while my flat mates find it cool at the moment, I know it'll soon start getting on their nerves. I'm tempted to go for a Dremel Fortiflex, this any good? Nearly went and got a Kress 1050 FSE-1 but the achine won't support that weight too well.

In terms of some kind of coolant/lubricant for cutting aluminium, I've been using WD-40. Seems to work well but stinks out the room.

I cant use lots of liquid either because it'll end up all over the place, was thinking about using a water mist?

I need something similar to a Shopvac. living in the UK, I cant find any of those. Any small vacuum cleaner will do. Willing to try make one of those cyclone dust extractors.

So in summary, is anyone able to recommend:

A good spindle (not too heavy/noisy/under £250/variable speed)
A non messy, non toxic coolant/lubricant
A small quiet wet/dry workshop vaccume

Thanks all [=.

[hemsworthlad]

Hi,

Re- spindle, think your going to struggle to find a quite and light weight spindle with out building your own. I have the super quiet water cooled spindle but it's very heavy.
Depending on your access to equipment (lathe etc) then I would think about making your own using a ER collet spindle shaft and RC DC motor, there are few post's kicking around who have done the same.

Re- cooling, Air is your best bet for cooling without the fumes, I only cut ali with my machine and use air to do most of the cooling and chip clearing. Obviuosly then you'll have the noise of a compressor but there are some really quite ones about if you look. Using a mister can be even more fumey than just squirting WD etc.?

Where abouts in the country are you located, if you go the building your own route I have a lathe and maybe could help.?

[draughted]

i like and have purchased the taig spindle with ER16 collets.

its just a matter of powering it now. it has a 10k rpm limit so it will be making chips not dust

[Rajpage]

Sounds like an option. I travel between London and Bristol a lot but that's about it. I'd rather just buy something than make it. I'm coming close to the end of my budget for where I could have bought a ready made machine and spindle from lumenlab. At the moment it's not the most stable thing because it's all been hand cut/drilled. It starts to vibrate very easily without lubricant and make a mess of things.

I've just been down the hardware store and have picked up some click and seal pot things to make a cyclone vacuum. It seems to be working. Maybe that could be used as air cooling? Is it as effective when air is being pulled in from around the bit?

The tiag spindle looks good, but I'd prefer something a bit more directly driven, I suppose the reason for the separate motor to spindle drives are to reduce vibration? I don't have much space on the Z-Axis, the spindle you see in the picture has a total diameter of 18mm. The machine was designed so it could support dremel or proxxon type tools.

Are the proxxon tools any good?

[hemsworthlad]

I've just been down the hardware store and have picked up some click and seal pot things to make a cyclone vacuum. It seems to be working. Maybe that could be used as air cooling? Is it as effective when air is being pulled in from around the bit?

No you need multi directed air blast's using flexible nozzles.

[ger21]

What about an 800 watt Chinese spindle from Ebay?

[Rajpage]

Do you mean the water cooled ones? I don't want to have to get a separate supply and water pump. The electricity bill on a student budget also limits me >.<.

I've been looking around, and it seems the Dremel Fortiflex is my best option. For what I'll use the machine for, 300W is more than enough. I believe there are larger hand pieces available that can hold 1/4 inch bits.

A bunch of people on youtube seem to get pretty decent tolerance on PCBs with Dremel tools.

[ger21]

No, the smaller ones are air cooled.

[Rajpage]

Could you link me one?

[ger21]

0.8KW AIR-COOLE MOTOR SPINDLE ENGRAVING MILLING GRIND - eBay (item 390218219614 end time Nov-10-10 05:42:03 PST)

[Rajpage]

Cool, looks like possibility. Any idea how much one would weigh?

[jsheerin]

Don't forget you'll need a vfd to run one of these - extra cost.

[RomanLini]

...
I want to use it to mill various things, but mainly, aluminium, acrylic, HDPE, and most importantly being an electronics student, PCBs!!!

The spindle you see is a old old old Dremel moto-flex I got off ebay for £30. It's a 110W motor fixed to 25,000 RPM. No good for cutting acrylic?

Thing is it's also very noisy and not variable.
...

For those cutting tasks you can get good results with a cheap variable speed router. The limit of what you can cut and how well it cuts may probably be determined by the rest of the machine, ie how stiff and how much slop it has, what IPM cutting speed etc and not by the spindle itself.

[jsheerin]

Yes, but a router will be pretty loud. The spindle is definitely more expensive, but it typically has lower runout, is quiet (although the actual cutting will still make noise) and you can get collets for it to hold more sizes of bits.

Honestly if I was going to do mostly metal and other materials that could be cut with a lower speed spindle, I'd go with a mini mill head driven by a dc motor. That would also tend to be pretty quiet and not too expensive. However I think you need higher speed for engraving pcb's, don't you?

[Rajpage]

Well so far, I'm using a 25,000 motor that seems to engrave PCBs quite well. using some cheapo 10 degree 0.1mm carbide cutters from china. Got some drewtronics spade mills in the post as well. Getting nearly smt sized circuits going.

The machine is purely hand made so far so it is wonky, wobbly and still rough around the edges but soon I will be getting it to rebuild itself.

I don't think I need something with too much power. I think I just need a reliable Dremel type tool with some medium low run out.

[RomanLini]

Yes, but a router will be pretty loud.

... However I think you need higher speed for engraving pcb's, don't you?

That's one of the reasons I suggested a router. With a good speed control unit like a SuperPID it will be almost silent at 5000 RPM and even 10000 RPM is quite comfortable, but you always have the option of just turning up the knob to get up to 30000 RPM for times when it is needed.

[draughted]

something i have looked at and am now reconsidering is a BLDC motor.

they are superior in many ways. low electrical noise, good torque, reversible, highly-controllable. but they can be affordable as well.

i often go looking at the keling website and i rediscovered these
Page Title
ShenZhen Sangmutan Motor Co.,LTD|BLDC Pump|BLDC Motor|Brushless DC Motor|Brushless Motor controller|Brushless DC Pump|Pump|WaterPUMP| - HOME???|?|??|?||||?||?||pwm|???|??|
a small one would go well with a taig or sherline spindle. and you can call your machine a mill in stead of a router because you will be making chips not dust.