Well, I have a vevor 4040 300-watt cnc router that has been doing pretty good. The support from vevor is icky as they have no knowledge about their product and even the documentation has been spotty. As I have been using it, I have been finding it has needed some other features. The first thing i found was I needed a vacuum circuit. The manual showed that it had a port for coolant. They gave no specs and had no idea what i was talking about, but the manual showed it on the control board, so I verified voltages and slipped a ssr with dry contacts and got a circuit to control a vacuum. I wired up an external plug. #d printed a vacuum nozzle and that helped a bunch. As I have been using it and getting accustomed to the Openbuilds control which I have had a few issues with all of my own doing I have been wanting to do a more with it and was finding i wanted more then 1000 rpm and the 48 volt spindle with only an 1/8" collet wasn't what I was wanting. I had a trim router from bosh that I don't use anymore and a few battery powered trim router laying around but my battery trim routers were the same diameter, but my corded one was an oddball size. My battery ones were speed controlled with a dial but my corded was a single speed but in years past i had used a speed control box to slow it down when needed. I thought about it and went to the shop and decided to build a dual-purpose mount for my battery and corded trim router and decided to modify my control box to allow a speed controller and control circuit for the corded trim router. I decided to use the bases for both the trim routers (corded and battery) which required a dual ring pattern for screws. I had to have a low enough drop to allow a full through depth so that required some oddball material. I knew I needed some rigidity. On the electrical my control board had an unused port for a spindle that was blocked, and it had a 48-volt supply for the spindle that was being used so I got to the unused port and found it was 24-volt.I found both spindle ports turned on and off at the same time so I opted to use the 24-volt for control. I grabbed a spare SSR with dry contacts and modded the case to allow a dedicated plug, fuse and switch for the corded router on the controller side and i knew I wanted a plug system on the carriage to allow me to go back to the 300watt if I wanted to. I wanted a voltage read out of the speed controller as well as a speed controller. I dug through all my spare parts and built it up. Took about 2 hrs. to wire it all up (including running a ground out to the carriage, more about that later). It took about 2 hrs. to find the material in my scrap and machine the mount for the frame for the routers. Mechanically everything went like butter. It works with both routers and only takes about 5 min to change between battery or corded. Both can be adjusted for height also by using their bases. They each take different screws though and have different patterns. I did number stamp one pattern though so that it was easier to align. Electrically it was a little rougher. My unit will not turn the router on with the m3 command unless it moves so when it is sitting there you can give it the m3 command and it won't turn on unless you give it a move command, it doesn't have to be moving but it does have to be moved (not sure why or if that is an openbuilds thing) took me a bit to figure it out. getting a ground ran out to the carriage through all the spiral wrap (which I hate) and through the drag chains, which were closed box not flip open (which I hate more than spiral wrap LOL) was fun if you like medieval torture devices. I thought it would be a good idea to get a good ground to stop eddy current, static charge and general safety since I am now running 120 VAC out there. I made a dedicated plug at carriage for the router/spindle to plug into and grounded it. Fired it up and everything functioned as desired except I couldn't get the z probe to work... thought about it some and checked all my connections and then figured it was the ground. On my unit You can't be grounded and have the z-probe work so It will have to have a separate connection to be used. The corded router fires up at whatever speed I run the manual controller at, the readout is great, and it is consistent at 70 volts and up, so I figure about 10,000 rpm and full speed is 30,0000. The battery runs at whatever I set it at before I start.
The last picture shows the 300 watt router with the vacuum hooked up. I am using an oreck canister vacuum on a cycling timer and it is mounted under the worktable. I am designing a new vacuum head for the new router mounts right now also but not sure which way I want to do it.
