Hi All,
I'm going to share my experience here of building a quieter, better and longer lasting spindle for your home brewed CNC router/mill.
After a couple of weeks listening to the angry drone of the mounted Ryobi router for hours on end and then witnessing it’s torturous final demise. It finally whirred to a grinding halt after several hours cutting a mold from a block of MDF. (medium density fiberboard) I unceremoniously tossed the aforementioned unit into the trash as it spewed forth its “magic smoke” into the passing breeze. Ah, quiet at last!
I was faced with purchasing another noisy router or look for an alternative. A better router might have been an acceptable alternative and if so it would probably be a Porter Cable.
After careful consideration and upon looking at literally dozens of various types of motors from A/C 3 phase to DC brushed units I settled on a 3 HP DC servo motor I had sitting around the shop. I was able to salvage the motor and it's matching controller from a nearby scrapyard a year or so before. The unit is manufactured by Aerotech designated BM1400.
Here are a couple of pics showing the modifications. An additional bearing on the front end of the motor is essential if the spindle is going to last any length of time. I turned a bearing housing from a piece of 6061 T-6 aluminum on my lathe and drilled and taped a series of holes to fasten it to the front end of the motor cap.
The shaft of the motor had to be turned down and threads cut so it would accept the chuck. This is the tricky part. I turned to a nearby machine shop that specializes in aerospace quality work as I wasn’t completely comfortable doing this part of the job myself. Everything this spindle would machine in the future was only going to be as accurate as its placement on the motor shaft. I chose a ½ inch Rohm chuck made in Germany. Nice unit, I’m looking forward to using it.
I’m in the stages of mounting the unit on my home brewed gantry mill/router and sometimes plasma cutter. More pics as I progress.