My new spindle

C

carguy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Well I took the plunge and got one of these Chinese VFD/spindle outfits that are all the rage these days. Not much of a plunge: $360 for the whole outfit. I got the air cooled 1.5 kw version because it is 65mm in diameter, the same diameter as the original router mount on my Taper Shape, lathe, etc., so no adaptors needed.

I have 220 single phase available 30 feet away, but I'm running the VFD on 110V since it's already right there. Before I got it, I asked the ebay seller if this could be done; they said "same unit, just plug it in.", so I did. It didn't run. I inquired and the seller gave me 4 settings to change on the VFD and I was in business.

So far It runs 11520 rpm flat out. I've inquired if it can go 20,000, as advertised, on 110V but it's only been a few hours so no answer yet.
If 11520 rpm is all it will ever do it's not a problem since I'm getting extremely smooth cuts at this speed and feel no pressure to change anything. Also, the power is amazing. The Riged router was never lacking, but this is a huge step up. It makes
1 1/2" squares round in one pass without hesitation. I don't think it slows at all and it runs cold.

I can't think of a better upgrade for a Taper Shaper.

The .8kw version, same diameter but shorter, would be great for ring cutting and other tasks usually done by a router.

Perhaps the best part for me is the very low noise level. I'm getting hard of hearing.
I like to blame Aaron Neville and Pete Townsend, but it was probably screaming engines in my ear for way too long. In any case, this spindle is a wonderful change in volume level. What a pleasure.

Robin Snyder
 
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I am still to get one of those spindles. What collets did it come with?
I see there is a 110V input option with the VFD as to the 220V input. Are you only getting 11 k at 60 hz? What is the max hz you can run with the spindle?
Neil
 
conetip said:
I am still to get one of those spindles. What collets did it come with?
I see there is a 110V input option with the VFD as to the 220V input. Are you only getting 11 k at 60 hz? What is the max hz you can run with the spindle?
Neil
Click to expand...

The collets are ER11. I got 4mm, 1/8" and 6mm collets with mine and I bought a 1/4" collet off ebay for under $10.

Max output hz as far as I can figure out so far is 400hz @60hz input.

Since my original post I enquired of the seller if I could get more than ~11000 rpm @ 400hz on 110V. They repeated that I should change those same 4 settings they recommended at first, which I did again.

The settings they recommended are PD013=1 (this restores all original settings)
PD041=8
PD200=65535
PD209=50
The PD200 setting starts at 0 and counts so slowly (<3 counts/second) that it takes 6-7 hours (yes!) to reach 65535. I tied string around the VFD and wedged a piece of wood to push the button for me and no, you can't go backwards around the bottom to make it quicker.
If you screw up you get to start again. OOOF!
The 65535 is as far up as it will count though so at least you can't overshoot the mark.

So I reset everything again and.....now it's wrong somehow and now it barely runs.
At this very moment it's re-setting away; I'll have more to report in 6 hours or so. I'll look again after lunch.

GRRR!!! I'm getting a little frustrated with it. Shoulda left well enough alone. At 11000 it ran great with excellent power and made very smooth cuts.

If I can get this thing sorted out it will be great. I'll keep you posted.

Robin Snyder
 
I have the two .8W spindles and it's fast enough to hog.
I have one on the toolpost as borer and thread grinder too.

My only gripe is it takes 20 secs to accelerate to 400 hz.
 
JoeyInCali said:
I have the two .8W spindles and it's fast enough to hog.
I have one on the toolpost as borer and thread grinder too.

My only gripe is it takes 20 secs to accelerate to 400 hz.
Click to expand...

Mine too. I'm working on it.
Kinda cool though. Sounds like a jet spooling up.

Robin Snyder
 
Finally........

So I finally got it going correctly.

One of the best parts of buying this spindles for me was the high quality tech support. It took about 3 exchanges before we got it sorted out, but the Chinese tech obviously knows these things inside and out and is quite fluent in English.

The name of the company I bought from was "Businesspleasant" on ebay. Excellent support.

Now I have full power and full speed....24000 RPM.

By this time I've read the manual several times; it's really pretty straight forward once you see how it works.

I want to fool with the ramp up speed a bit, then I'll post the whole list of correct settings for this thing for use on 110 volts. I'll bet others can use the same info; it'll save lots of time.

Robin Snyder
 
carguy said:
So I finally got it going correctly.

One of the best parts of buying this spindles for me was the high quality tech support. It took about 3 exchanges before we got it sorted out, but the Chinese tech obviously knows these things inside and out and is quite fluent in English.

The name of the company I bought from was "Businesspleasant" on ebay. Excellent support.

Now I have full power and full speed....24000 RPM.

By this time I've read the manual several times; it's really pretty straight forward once you see how it works.

I want to fool with the ramp up speed a bit, then I'll post the whole list of correct settings for this thing for use on 110 volts. I'll bet others can use the same info; it'll save lots of time.

Robin Snyder
Click to expand...

Due to this post I made this guy an offer on one!
Hope to get it :)
Thanks robin!
 
cuejo said:
Due to this post I made this guy an offer on one!
Hope to get it :)
Thanks robin!
Click to expand...

My pleasure Darcy. I'm glad I could contribute something. I could have probably thrashed about and gotten it running properly myself but the tech in China has this wired and was a huge help. He got back to me promptly and put up with my grumbling. He missed a couple points but all in all, the support was first rate.

I wonder if all these companies that sell these are really the same one.

I would be interested in how inexpensively you can get one on an ebay auction. I couldn't wait, so I paid full pop: $360 for the air cooled 1.5kw.
 
carguy said:
My pleasure Darcy. I'm glad I could contribute something. I could have probably thrashed about and gotten it running properly myself but the tech in China has this wired and was a huge help. He got back to me promptly and put up with my grumbling. He missed a couple points but all in all, the support was first rate.

I wonder if all these companies that sell these are really the same one.

I would be interested in how inexpensively you can get one on an ebay auction. I couldn't wait, so I paid full pop: $360 for the air cooled 1.5kw.
Click to expand...

I offered 360 including shipping,
They wanted 60 to ship to me.
Canada is awesome for everything except shipping :(
 
VFD setup information

So here's the setup info for the 1.5kw air cooled spindle to run on 110 volts. I'll take a wild guess that all similar ones set up basically the same way.
I'd do the wiring, then read this, then read the manual, then go for it.

Wiring.........
I bought a round, 3 conductor, medium duty extension cord and cut it so that the end with the plug would reach from the wall outlet to the VFD. The 2 live wires go to terminals R and S on the left end of the large terminal strip under the removable lower front panel of the VFD.
One end of the other piece of your wire goes to the 3 terminals on the spindle, in any order. The other end goes to terminals U,V and W on the right end of the strip in any order.

VFD settings........
1) To program the VFD, wire it up, plug it in. It takes several seconds to come to life.

2) Push the PRGM button to enter programing mode.

3 )Push the SET button. The display will read PD000.

4) If you push the SET button again, it will display the present setting of PD000.

5 )By pushing the up or down arrows, you can change the setting to whatever it needs to be. (This is just an example. PD000 needs no changes)

6)Push the SET button again to lock in the setting of PD000 and advance to the next number, in this case, PD001.

7) Push the SET button and it will display the present setting of PD001. Again, use the up and down arrows as necessary to set PD001, then push SET again to lock it in.

Note: You can also scroll through the PD numbers with the up and down arrows.

8) make all settings this way.

9) by pushing the SET button you can scroll through the settings. First push of SET moves to the next number, second push displays it's setting, third push moves to the next PD number.

Note- If you take too long, it will leave the programing mode on it's own. If it does, just push PRGM again to return to programing mode. Then press SET and continue what you were doing.

10) Start with PD013. Set it to 1, which returns the settings to the factory settings.

11) Then set PD005 to 400, PD004 to 400, and PD003 to 400 IN THAT ORDER.

12) Then set the following: PD041=8, PD144=3000

13) PD200=65535 It will take 6-7 hours to reach this number. Tie a string around the VFD and wedge the button with a piece if wood or something so it will keep on counting. It can't go too far since 65535 is the highest number it will go to, so go do something else for 6 hours or so until it reads 65535. OOOF! Use this same trick for the other time consuming settings.

14) Set PD209=50

That's it for the programing. You should get 24000RPM when you push RUN.

If the spindle runs backwards when forward is selected, transpose any 2 wires at U,V,W on the VFD terminal strip.

If you smell hot electronics smell, unplug it right away and find out what's wrong.

The tech support guy was great, but he failed to tell me that when I pushed PD013, I would have to re-set the frequency to 400hz (PD005, PD004 and PD003). After that it was all good.

The JOG button controls forward/reverse
PD023 is a reverse lockout. 0= reverse locked out. 1= reverse enabled.

If you are running this thing on a CNC machine, there are provisions for your program to change settings on the fly. Check out the manual.

I still need to re-set the ramp-up and ramp-down times. They are a little long now.

The >>> button scrolls through displays of various functions; speed, frequency, amps, etc. Just keep pushing the button and it will scroll through all of them and return to the beginning (speed).
Check the manual for an explanation of the displays.

Have fun. I'll try to help if I can but I kind of stumbled my way along myself. PM me if I can help.

Robin Snyder
 
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cuejo said:
I offered 360 including shipping,
They wanted 60 to ship to me.
Canada is awesome for everything except shipping :(
Click to expand...

Seller didn't respond to my offer and it expired,
So I searched the item and found the same spindle and vfd, from the same seller,
For sale in gbp,
Converted amount shipped was 320 cdn!
Score!!
eBay Item #:190613514605
For anyone interested
 
cuejo said:
Seller didn't respond to my offer and it expired,
So I searched the item and found the same spindle and vfd, from the same seller,
For sale in gbp,
Converted amount shipped was 320 cdn!
Score!!
eBay Item #:190613514605
For anyone interested
Click to expand...

Good score! $320 Canadian shipped is excellent!
I was in a hurry and paid $360 delivered...really not too bad considering I got it from their local warehouse in 2 days!
You are going to love this tool.

What is gbp?

Robin Snyder
 
carguy said:
Good score! $320 Canadian shipped is excellent!
I was in a hurry and paid $360 delivered...really not too bad considering I got it from their local warehouse in 2 days!
You are going to love this tool.

What is gbp?

Robin Snyder
Click to expand...

Great British pounds :)
If it works out I may buy another for my taper shaper.
I have the quiet router on it now,
But if I try to take a big pass, bad things happen :)
 
cuejo said:
Great British pounds :)
If it works out I may buy another for my taper shaper.
I have the quiet router on it now,
But if I try to take a big pass, bad things happen :)
Click to expand...

You can buy one vfd and two spindles.
They are easily disconnected and reconnected.
 
cuejo said:
Great British pounds :)
If it works out I may buy another for my taper shaper.
I have the quiet router on it now,
But if I try to take a big pass, bad things happen :)
Click to expand...

I used a quiet router for a long time because it's...quiet! That's how I got on to the Riged routers too: the low noise level. These spindles fit right on to the taper shaper, no adaptor, no nada, and are WAY better than anything else I've used. The huge abundance of power makes a huge difference too...I can hog like never before. It really transforms the machine. There seems to be way less push-off now too.

JoeyInCali said:
You can buy one vfd and two spindles.
They are easily disconnected and reconnected.
Click to expand...

As they used to say uptown, 'zackly!

Also, as Cuejo pointed out, they can be had for way less than what I paid ($360). I just saw this model for about $175!! Damn! But I was in a hurry and certainly have no complaints with the performance.

Robin Snyder
 
carguy said:
Also, as Cuejo pointed out, they can be had for way less than what I paid ($360). I just saw this model for about $175!! Damn! But I was in a hurry and certainly have no complaints with the performance.

Robin Snyder
Click to expand...


The ones I have seen at that price were the spindles only.
If they can be got for the under $200 with a VFD, please PM a link to me.
Neil
 
cuejo said:
Great British pounds :)
If it works out I may buy another for my taper shaper.
I have the quiet router on it now,
But if I try to take a big pass, bad things happen :)
Click to expand...

And I bet they happen fast too, huh?:thumbup:
Gary
 
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