[allistar]

Hi there,
I made a home made router a few years ago and got a lot of use out of it. It's been gathering dust for the past 12 months and I'm looking to use it again. The spindle I use is a cheap Ozito laminate trimmer. These are $85 from Bunnings and while they work well enough they are extremely noisy. My current Ozito has died (power switch broke) so I need to replace it. I would like to get a "proper" spindle with a VFD to keep the noise down. I'd like to avoid water cooling systems if I can, though I'm happy to be convinced otherwise. I find the options for such spindles very confusing and their availability from NZ seems low. Here's a simple question:

What's an equivalent quiet spindle to, say, the Makita RT0700CX? By "equivalent" I mean it'll cut timber (pine, ply, MDF, rimu, macrocarpa) and acrylic with a similar speed. I found the Ozito can only do 2.5mm passes in most timber which makes cutting through 20mm take quite a while. Hopefully a different spindle will be gruntier.

Where do I get such a spindle from in NZ?

Thanks,
Allistar.

[Sterob]

No expert but maybe I can help....
Do you know the specs of the old trimmer? Speed, power? You can use those to choose a new spindle. Choose something with more power, if you want to make deeper/faster cuts.
I think you will have to look at Chinese options for a spindle. You will need a Spindle and a VSD.
Ebay is probably the easiest place to look. Some vendors sell packages that include spindle and matching VSD.
Not sure the biggest air cooled Spindle is, maybe 1.5 kW? Mine is 1.5 kW water cooled and requires water lines and a small pump. Mildly annoying with the extra clutter of lines, although mine turns on and off with Mach3.
Easy to do but a bit more work to set up.
Higher power spindles need larger VSD's and price goes up...You need to choose your package depending on cost.

Also consider Collet size. Large allows more options with bits. I have a ER11 ( max 11 mm shank ) and I sometimes want more. I think ER20 is available these days.... My next one will be ER20.

Try not to buy the cheapest VSD you can find. You don't need to spend too much more to get a lot better VSD.
The spindles usually run a 400 Hz, 24 000 RPM ,so remember that. All the VSD's can be set to 400 Hz as far as I know.

You will need a new Mount for the Spindle as well.

There are a lot of U-Tube videos on VSD'a and setting parameters.

Good lucjk
Steve

[InMesh]

I have a 2.2 KW spindle water cooled no worries 2 years ,I found out the smaller ones air cooled and the likes have a lower RPM rating as well mine is 24,000 RPM hope this helps .