500w AliExpress Spindle

A simple square box made with MDF would be easy, cheap, and work like a charm. A tarp may keep the dust down but will do nothing for noise, and foam is only good for very high frequency noise. The denser the material, the better the sound dampening. The key to good noise damping is dense material, and sealing all air leaks from the enclosure. A little gap will let out a surprising amount of noise. Seal all corners with a good silicone sealer or use construction adhesive.

A little weatherstripping around a front door and you are golden. Put a plexi window in the front and a light inside so you can see what's going on. Also, make sure to put the machine on a dense foam pad to absorb mechanical vibrations. If you are really paranoid, you could line the inside of the box with a dense foam rubber like good quality carpet underlay to absorb even more noise.

Give it a coat of paint, and you could tell everyone it was an enclosure for your pet GRBL.

As far as the spindle goes, a simple Bosch or Dewalt palm router will work, have more power, but probably be a bit noisier. You can likely get one on sale for well under $100. I saw a company on the web that had Bosch Colt variable speed factory reconditioned routers for $74.00. The c-beam kit comes with a Bosch mount.

 

Here's the URL for that Bosch colt for $74..:

Factory Reconditioned Bosch PR20EVSK-RT Colt Variable-Speed Palm Router Kit

 

Millme:

It's pretty hard to say quantitatively that one system will be quieter or louder than another. I have never heard the spindle motor you mentioned in your first post, so I can't really comment on whether the Bosch is louder or not. (does the manufacturer have any noise specs on the motor?) Perhaps someone else on the Forum has used both, and could offer a more informed opinion?

I do know the Bosch, like all motors going 35000 RPM, is quite loud. I know that sound enclosures do make a heck of a difference. Go to a Jugo Juice or an Orange Julius or whatever you have in your area, most of them have acrylic enclosures over the Vitamix Blenders. They do make one heck of a difference when the cover is closed. A properly done sound enclosure should give 20dB or more of noise reduction, which is about what you get from a set of foam earplugs.

Whether you can have a conversation over it or not is a subjective question I can't answer. MDF is cheap enough to "try it and see". Surely you know someone with a router, you can stick it into a box and see what kind of difference it makes. I know I have a Router Table in my shop, and I totally enclosed the bottom of it where the motor is located, and it made all the difference in the world. I can easily hold a conversation next to the machine, and I don't need to wear hearing protection when using it.

I'd be more worried about waking up the neighbors in a dorm, than being able to hold a conversation.

I do have a c-beam machine in my garage, and with the whine of the stepper motors, and the router, it is pretty loud. I definitely have to wear good hearing protection, but I also usually have a shop vac going at the same time. I might just have to look at making my own enclosure...

I do like the design of the Carvey, that is a nice enclosure. You could do something similar where the top and the front all hinge up as one piece. It would take up quite a bit of room, though. You could put a Piano hinge at the back of the top, and another where the front and top join, to make the lid more compact.

 

Yeah that video really turned me off to the cheap Chinese spindles. I'll take CE marked German Engineering every time. False economy to buy a cheap spindle and have to buy another one after a few hours of use.

Routers are probably louder because they spin at 35000 rpm instead of 10-15000 for the spindles. Keep in mind that cooling will be an issue inside the closed box as well. Routers are pretty well air cooled.

Now you are cooking with the box design. A bit bulky, but not bad. Keep in mind that 3/8" or 1/2" plexi is very expensive, you might want to stick with a wood top with a window or two of 1/4" plexi. Dyna Mat is a great idea.

Happy routing.

 

Hello Metalguru. I'm ready to graduate from a router to a spindle but I'm with you when you say that you'll take a German made unit over one of lesser quality. That being said, can you tell me where to look for a German unit? Thanks

 

Not sure that's a graduation and not a return to grade school. I am of the opinion that 90% of the spindles on the market are Chinese junk (and I don't mean a boat). I don't actually know of any specific German made spindles, I was just using German Engineering as an example to contrast to the Chinese non engineered stuff.

I would much rather spend my money on a 1000w Dewalt spindle than some water cooled 300W Chinese unit. Aside from the bad motor quality, the drives are also poorly constructed, they have way less power than a nice Dewalt, and it's impossible to get parts for them. In addition you have all the water cooling BS on top of that making them way over complicated. Also, none of the Chinese units have UL or equivalent electrical safety approval for North America, and the CE mark you see on them is a fake mark the Chinese use that means China Export, and its a blatant ripoff because it looks almost identical to a real CE mark. The only advantage I can see with the Chinese spindles is that they are very quiet, and operate at lower RPM's. And, they have the ER collets, which have lots of interchangeable sizes for different bits. There seem to be more air cooled models on the market now, and prices have come down, but cheap junk is still junk.

Now if we were talking about an American or European made 1500W or 2500W spindle, that would be great but those are way too big and bulky for an Openbuilds design machine. If I was building a heavy duty 4x4' or a 4x8' machine, I would consider them, but they are 10 times the price.

Stick with the Dewalt, you'll never go wrong. It's quiet, more powerful than a Bosch, and has a great chuck. Multiple sizes of precision chucks are available for it from Elaire Corp. And, if it ever does break, you can easily get parts for it, and you can buy one or two of them for less than one junky chinese spindle, or 10 of them for the price of a German one. I've gone away from using the Bosch's, they are very loud and have a crappy chuck. After I broke 3 chucks, I threw it in the garbage and bought a Dewalt.

I'm looking into running a Dewalt on 180VDC PWM, using rectified AC line. If this works, it would give a much better speed range and should have even better torque, and, be able to control spindle speed from GRBL.

MG

 

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. Perhaps sticking with my Dewalt is the way to go. I was thinking of how nice it would be if I could get a spindle to work with my board's software.

Thanks again,
Davus