Thanks for everything you have shared here, Chris. I am about to place an order for my VFD in the coming hours and I am already most of the way through printing your 80mm mounting bracket. The universal spindle plate from Inventables has been ordered as of last night to mate with it. This will be replacing my more standard Dewalt setup.
Couple of questions, if you don’t mind:
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Your 3D printed mount: has it proven to be solid for you? No flex or other instability issues under the stress of use in this manner? I’m printing mine right now with 40% infill, but opted to use PETG rather than PLA for its durability and tendency to be less brittle. Halfway through I’m now wondering if that is a mistake on my part that might introduce even a slight bit of elasticity/flex that PLA wouldn’t. On the other hand, perhaps that is better than PLA which could maybe stress fracture rather than give? Any thoughts from experience thus far?
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Water cooled vs. Air cooled: You had water cooling stuff on hand from what I read, so seems logical that you went that way. Starting fresh, would I be better with water cooled for the long run or is the air cooled version I was looking at sufficient?
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I had this pair (below) in mind since the VFD does the voltage step-up internally, so it seemed I could eliminate the standalone transformer. Does that work as well as a native 220 with an outside transformer unit? It wouldn’t be impossible for me to pull 220 right to the workshop someday and skip the transformers entirely, so I don’t want to be shortsighted or skimp at this stage if native 220 and a dedicated transformer are better in the interim.
VFD:
Spindle:
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What’s the risk / benefit comparison of 1.5KW vs .800KW? Right off the bat, I recognize I could just shim my Dewalt mount with a narrower .800KW and the weight is, I imagine, less. My XCarve is a 1000mm model recently upgraded with the kit to the new stronger gantry and the X-Controller. Big tradeoffs there in capability vs. added hassles for the larger spindle?
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Hoping my SuckIt dust boot will carry over in a compatible manner. If not, do you mind sharing your STL and other parts for the boot I see in your last photo so I can print one? Someone gave me a HUGE shop dust collector built, I suspect, in the 80s or so. It’s a tank and I look forward to getting it up and running soon (sitting under a tarp right now until I can wire up the circuit it needs and repair a switch on it).
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Last question: I’ve seen indications the new X-Controller can likely interface with the VFD properly with its expanded ports (PWM or analog, etc). Has this proven true? Love for start/stop and spindle speed to be fully automated.
Thanks for all of your great info and for slogging through this tome I’ve just written! 