Small question regarding the 300W 24V spindle.
I was running a job and noticed that after 20-30 min the spindle carriage (thus even more the spindle) was getting quite hot (almost too hot to hold for more than a few sec).
How long can you usually run the spindle before it gets too hot? What temperature can it handle?
Btw, I’m really enjoying the machine!
Inventables needs to chime in, but, it’s likely not too hot just because you can’t touch it. 
An old chief engineer in the Coast Guard taught me a neat trick for checking the temp of bearings. If you can tap your index and middle finger tips on the surface of the bearing 10 times quickly then the bearing or surface is less then 180 F. If your finger tips get to hot to tap 10 times the bearing or surface is over 180 F
Next would be to check the specs of the spindle and see what they call out for max operating temp.
Dave
X-Carve customer @MichaelDubno took a thermal image of his X-Carve spindle and it came back at 109 degrees F.
Do you think yours was more than 109? Do you have an IR thermometer to test it?
The thermal image shows the highest and lowest temperatures in the image. 109F was the highest temperature recorded. It was only one angle, and not a comprehensive analysis, but the temperature wouldn’t be off by more than 5 degrees.
I’d say the temperature is around 150F (or at least between 140 and 160, I compare by holding bottles with liquid set at these temperatures, so the temp transfer from glas vs aluminium might fool me for a couple of degrees).
Would 160F be a problem?
160F could be a problem. Can you go to lowes or home depot and pick up a $15 IR thermometer in order to check things more accurately? Aluminum is an amazing conductor of heat, and will feel a LOT hotter than plastic, glass or anything nonmetallic.
I was cutting for ~30 minutes and didn’t really end up with anything over about 110 when I used my FLIR to take some photos.
I just heard back from the manufacturer. The spec is for the case temperature during operation is to be below 80C which is 176F.
