High Speed Spindle for the Mill

[RayG]

Hi All,

I've had a high speed water cooled spindle motor for a few months now, and planning how to install it on the mill..

After we visited Nick in Munich, and seeing his cast high speed mount, I decided to buy one, it arrived in the mail at Linz a few days ago, (only took overnight from Munich to Linz :2tsup:)

Here are a few pictures for Nick... :)

http://www.backsaw.net/pics/HS_Spindle/DSCN2261.JPG

http://www.backsaw.net/pics/HS_Spindle/DSCN2262.JPG

http://www.backsaw.net/pics/HS_Spindle/DSCN2263.JPG

I'm still thinking about the best way to mount it, and how it will work with the CNC conversion.

Thanks again to Nick for a beautiful casting and machining job, and very timely delivery :2tsup:

Regards
Ray

PS... Also thanks Nick for the Saturday BBQ and casting party, definately one of the highlights of the trip. :)

[Graziano]

I'd be inclined to display it on the coffee table for a few weeks just to look at it before using it, it's a great bit of casting.

[rodm]

Hi Ray,
Are you going to loose a bit of travel mounting it on one side of the head. If so have you thought about rotating the head 90 degrees and mounting it at right angles to the head?
Thinking about it you may have enough table length as it is but I'll throw the idea out here anyway.

Nice casting Nick. :2tsup:

[Graziano]

Ray, why not fabricate a rotating base for it and mount on the other end of the top slide?. that way you don't lose any of the mill's travel.

[RayG]

Ray, why not fabricate a rotating base for it and mount on the other end of the top slide?. that way you don't lose any of the mill's travel.

Hi Graziano,

Now there's a clever idea... I'm wondering if I can incorporate the Z axis CNC somehow...

I need to re-think the Z axis conversion, I am converting the Quill to Z, and am considering using the knee as well...

If I just Z the quill, the spindle mounting will need to mount on the quill..

As far as X axis travel goes I won't lose anything, I'd need to look a Y though.

Regards
Ray

[rusel]

hi Ray
What is the spindle?
A Chinese one? If so the bearing set up in them is not the best for milling metal.
have a look at this thread http://www.woodworkforums.com/f170/water-cooled-chinese-spindle-disassembly-136209/
I must up date this thread as I final worked out a good set up for the bearings

Russell
Ps casting looks great

[Stustoys]

Hi Ray,
You need to CNC the table Z, one day you'll want to use it with the Hoz spindle. :D
No idea what for but I'm sure you and Josh will come up with something.

Stuart

[RayG]

hi Ray
What is the spindle?
A Chinese one? If so the bearing set up in them is not the best for milling metal.
have a look at this thread http://www.woodworkforums.com/f170/water-cooled-chinese-spindle-disassembly-136209/
I must up date this thread as I final worked out a good set up for the bearings

Russell
Ps casting looks great

Hi Russell,

It's a cheap chinese 1.5 kw spindle motor, cost $300 including the VFD, so my expectations aren't all that high.. :)

Mostly I expect to use it for plastic and an occasional bit of wood carving. Not high precision work..

I'd be intererested in what you've worked out for the bearings, as all the options I could think of, the bearings would cost more that the whole motor and vfd combined.




Hi Ray,
You need to CNC the table Z, one day you'll want to use it with the Hoz spindle. :D
No idea what for but I'm sure you and Josh will come up with something.

Stuart


Hi Stuart,

Yes, good to be back in the shed.. :D

The best of all worlds is to cnc both the quill and the knee, and that's the way we are thinking at present. There are problems both ways, but I think a bit of carefull planning we can work around those problems..

Regards
Ray

[MuellerNick]

Hi!

Thanks for the nice comments about my even nicer casting. :D
It's always difficult to foresee the different mounting situations. I made one side of the clamping area stick out from the base plate. That was intended for a situation like Ray's. With the quill and tool holders always sticking out, that looks like the better solution. Sometimes, the mount gets in the way, so I would bolt it and then ream orientations pins to avoid re-aligning. Maybe a adapter plate helps?

Getting the spindle mount to Ray in time (to Linz) was an easy story, but only at the very end.
I had to finish patterns and test-castings PLUS get Ray's casting machined at the same time. When I finally was ready on Monday (already tight for shipping), I biked to the next village's post office. Only to hear, that the parcels have already been picked up and that she doubted it will arrive in time. Only solution was to bike 15 km to the next big city.
While I was going there, I thought I'd buy the right bolts for the clamping (I needed more of them anyhow). Almost the same way. So at the bolts store, I bought a pack of each, cut open the parcel and stuffed the bolts into. Then I asked for a tape to close the parcel again. And then, he asked me, wether he also should ship it for me. "Yes?!". It turned out, that they also were a pick up place for DPD (a private parcel service). Shipping cost was less with them, it arrived the next day, and I didn't have to ride all the 15 km.

And that's the patterns I had to finish:
231344
231345
231346
231347
231348
A model (scale 1:10) of a Deckel FP1 plus the first test castings.
We had a big forum-meeting (10th anniversary) this weekend with a casting demonstration. I thought that the admins and moderators should have a little present in return (for not banning me). We also casted one in bronze (or first try and a success) for the owner of the laser-cutting shop where we met (around 80 people).

Nick

[RayG]

Hi Nick,

Those 1/10 scale FP1 castings look great, did anyone get a picture of an assembled one yet? Even better, I hope you signed each one as a limited edition artwork!

Be careful the admins and mods around here don't get any ideas... :)

Regards
Ray

[MuellerNick]

Ooops, the forum software seems to be a bit confused, can't quote.Anyhow. No, there aren't any pictures of assembled ones. The plan was, to make the few necessary milling ops at the meeting. But I think BBQ and beer had higher priorities. And I was forced to have a short scraping workshop at 2 o'clock in the morning. A few Scotch Whiskey made that an easy task.I bought the right paint today and will paint one tonight and mill it tomorrow. Hopefully.I got a few ideas for improvements on these existing patterns. I'll start a new thread ...Nick