Hello found a thread about the cordless Makita router conversion. Looks pretty cool. Lightweight, runs off power supply. I think I’d start by using the onboard speed control thoughts? Anyone out there do this yet? Better off with just a spindle?
Shapeoko 3 Router Upgrades - NYC CNC That gives us the initial path. Body of text is below. There really is no tutorial I could follow, to wire a VESC. But think I can muddle through wiring to a powr supply. End of the day I'd like to be able to have more control, or total control of my speeds. Instead of "just a little above 3" For less maintenance, the brushless Makita XTR01Z can be used but will need internal wiring modifications to plug into a DC power supply. For more advanced users that would like to have full control over the XTR01Z, the stock speed controller can be swapped with a VESC motor controller. This will let you program the BLDC motor and manually control it with your computer over USB connection with the benefit of graphing real time data and allowing datalogging. For those of you that use calculators for speeds/feeds, the VESC data logs will let you compare real world power usage and allow you to fine tune for different types of cuts and materials.
Not exactly an overwhelming bit of information is it... You might chat them up to see if they'll give you a better idea of what all is involved.
Does the VESC project website not have info? It's gotta be similar to any other ESC- 2 wires in, 3 wires out, maybe a hall sensor plug- but there'll be minor differences for the USB serial interface. I saw the video when it came out and the brushless route makes much more sense than a regular manual router and perhaps less EMI-prone than a VFD (or at least constrains it to a better location). But it probably does require a little electronics tinkering experience.
There are a couple threads in the forums that get more in depth. Actually too much in depth. A bit over my head. I can find those and link. Less EMI is appealing to. Where I live we can get into single digits for humidity when it gets cold. I struggle a bit during these periods. I just don’t run dust collection as much I’ll look into it more. Just getting it up and running through a power supply should be easy enough.
If you think you are over your head by reading what's on that forum.. you should not be tinkering with the electronics. I'm not trying to sound like a ahole.. but that is a serious fire and/or shock hazard waiting to happen. At that point, just find a spindle or router that does what you want. Consider this, and include your time as being valuable.. you tinker with a $120 router, and fry it, now you are at $240 with the replacement.. you either give up and lose the abilities you are looking for.. or you try again... I would recommend getting the spindle that does what you want it to off the bat.. You can get some cheap decent VFD based spindles, of you can look into more purpose built ones like the one I have, 1400P | AMB Spindle | Midwest Circuit Technology They have cheaper smaller ones as well, there are a few similar ones. Stepcraft has a similar one (I am pretty sure AMB makes it for them), MM-1000 Milling Spindle (USA) Again, just my opinion.. don't just look at the cost of the components, take into account everything that would be involved, and see if it is worth it over getting something you know will work (and comes with a warranty which you will murder the moment you start to modify things()
The AMB/Stepcraft/Kress units are all the same, as far as I'm aware. Those are what I'd recommend over, well, basically anything else, for regular router usage and maybe even for slightly heavier stuff, not sure. A 1050DI is gonna do basically anything anyone needs it to, and if they want to push their skills later they can add the ATC unit that clips right on and get a control system that allows for toolchanging. I may end up going that route with M4 if I get too annoyed at changing ER collet tooling (even manual TTS changing in an R8 spindle has spoiled me) and can't justify springing for the 3kW ISO20 ATC spindles. It'll already be running LinuxCNC.
Kress was acquired by AMB, or merged, it's all German to me.. heh The only downside to the AMB/Kress, is that except for the 800W models, they are all 220v. Interesting that the Stepcraft has a 1kW model, at 110v. They really are good spindles, and will handle the lateral stress much better than a router will, not to mention there is significantly less runout on the spindles over the routers.
When you figure in the cost of the Chinese spindle. These are not much more. I’ll switch paths and research the ones above. Glad I asked the question, really great folks and information here.
Rick / Rob Pretty much set on the 1050 or the 1400. How are you guys dealing with dust collection? The 43MM spindle is short. Does not appear you could add a clamp on dust collector below it? The Suck-it style looks like the best approach. Or mounting somehow else to the Z-plate. Just wondering how you approached it. Thanks
Dave, google 'dust shoe' and you'll get lots of pictures that will show you options on how to mount a vac hose on a spindle.
