I've decided to design my own spindle cartridge, and the problem I've run into after hammering out all the mechanical design details is what kind of motor to drive the spindle with. My plan was to have it driven indirectly with a belt and pulley, and beyond that I'm at a loss for what motor would best suit my needs. I have practically no electrical or electronics experience. The machine I'm designing is meant to be a miniature vertical machining center - based on the RIGCNC by Ryan Kelly () - made to run off of a 15A/120V outlet. It's going to be a demo machine for the community college manufacturing program I work for, and having it run off of a standard US outlet would allow us to set it up anywhere for demonstrations. I was hoping to get as beefy a motor as I could, so the machine could potentially cut steel with some moderate feeds and speeds, rather than being relegated to only cutting aluminum or super conservative steel cutting speeds and feeds. As far as documentation for the Blackbox X32 goes, I only found information regarding setting up a VFD + Spindle cartridge with integrated motor. But if I purchase a VFD and a DC motor, I'm not sure how to wire it all to plug into an outlet and the Blackbox. Also, after some reading, I was interested in servo motors for the potential extra torque, but couldn't find any documentation for how a servo driver would be set up. Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies if I've left out any details that would better clarify my questions.
Hi, Just to say a VFD only works with an AC motor. You would need a VFD or DC motor drive (depending on your choice of motor) that accepts analogue input (0-10V) for speed and a volt free contact for run/stop. These get wired up in generally the same way as the information you have already seen. You would need to check the documentation for potential solutions to understand the exact connections required. The drive will also get connected to a power source (either the mains or a separate power supply) - the Black Box can't power the motor directly. I'd suggest buying the motor and drive as a package from the same supplier with some assurance that they are suitable for each other, and that the drive has the necessary input options. I would say that the design (stiffness) of the spindle and stiffness of the machine are both critical if you have aspirations to cut steel. (SKF do a good technical document on spindle design.) Motor power is much less important. This is mine: Making a Stiffer ER11 Spindle - MisterG
If you do get a DC spindle/controller just avoid the ones the look like these, like the plague! We've seen their 0-10v section malfunction and kill so many BlackBoxes (not covered under warranty)
Thank you both! I greatly appreciate any additional resource such as your blog post, and I'll be sure to avoid that style of controller on my hunt for parts. I've done my best in researching spindle design, and actually found a super helpful document by a local company that specializes in spindle design - here's a link for anyone else searching for more info: https://dynospindles.com/vault/technical/Book-of-Spindles-Part-1.pdf Any opinions on using a double row angular contact bearing in the front end of the spindle versus two matched single row bearings? I was planning on using a double row in the front since it's cheaper than a matched set from the supplier I'm using.
Yes: You won't be able to pre-load the bearings in the double row against each other to remove axial play (been there / done that!). Matched sets of angular contact bearings are available fairly cheaply as spare parts for Chinese spindles (on Aliexpress, etc.). It's what I used. This is the SKF paper I mentioned (Page 57 onwards for the spindle design stuff): https://cdn.skfmediahub.skf.com/api...edium/0901d19680495562_pdf_preview_medium.pdf
