Spindle stopped working today mid-project

A percentage of defective items is normal in any manufacturing process and hopefully the ratio of defective spindles is very low compared to items sold.
I personally in the past have ordered many items from “offshore” online retailers and suffered anywhere from 25~50% product defect or failure which has turned me off from these “great deals” and now prefer to buy from reputable companies that stand behind their products (like Inventables).
Somewhere on here I remember seeing Zach respond to this issue with honest info regarding a possible update to the spindles by the manufacturer which is just another up side to this company!

I won’t get into an argument here about such touchy-feely stuff, but I will say that this “transparency” isn’t the cure for all ills. It only makes revealing a problem that much easier. For anybody with a bad spindle, it doesn’t unbreak that spindle, and it doesn’t turn back the clock the few days or week that they are stuck waiting on a new one. And it won’t take away that uneasy feeling that will nag them for the next six months with the new one - wondering if each time they turn it on it’s going to work or not. A better option, in my less-than-humble opinion, would be to properly source components from the start, so you don’t have to apologize to the customer while going back to the sub-contractor for a solution.

As for the “offshore” bit - just where do you suspect that these spindles were made? I’d bet good money it wasn’t cleveland.

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I sorry but in my opinion these are not CNC spindles. They are cheap brushed DC motors that they have stuck a ER collet adapter onto. I expect if you were to take one apart you will find cheap ball bearings with no preload. Cheap ball bearings are not designed for axial load. The ER collet sticks out way to far from the bearings. The shaft is small.
Brushed DC motors generate a ton of electric noise that CNC machines hate.

Inventables needs to address this problem ASAP. People are saying good things about there machines now but that could change real fast with people talking about how the machines do not stand up to reasonable use in the shop turning out projects.

Dave

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Do you think going with a Dewalt DW660 router would be as precise and much more reliable than the brand-less motor/spindle that comes stock?

Hungh. I thought I was the only one with a bad spindle. Mine was incapable of cutting MDF at .05 depth 10" per minute. Ridiculous chatter. D Sohlstrom nailed it. I just received a new 600 watt quiet cut spindle from Amazon/China that is built like a brick. If it doesn’t perform well enough to do aluminum, I am going back to routers. My last machine had a Hitachi 12mv and that thing could cut ANYTHING. But my homemade machine was made entire out of MDF, used threaded rod for movement and suffered crazy “whip” effect. Now I have PRECISELY the opposite problem. But i don’t think the x-carve can handle the weight of the Hitachi. Can anyone post the thread where defective spindles are discussed?

Here is the post with the manufacturer’s analysis of the problem.

Hi Everyone,

We will take back 100% of the spindles for a full refund. While we figure out the root cause we can offer you:

  1. A refund
  2. A credit
  3. A replacement

We are working with the manufacturer to figure out the root cause of the problem. In order for them to do the analysis they need the spindles back. We are providing return address labels to everyone affected but haven’t got any back yet. When we get them we will be sending them in for analysis as soon as we get them in.

In terms of other solutions our engineering team is working on some other low cost entry level spindle solutions but if you don’t have time to wait for that you can use the refund to order a Dewalt 611, Dewalt 660, Bosch Colt, water cooled VFD spindle.

The water cooled VFD spindle we have is:
0.8kW
65mm Diameter
110VAC VFD power

EDIT The water cooled spindle I posted earlier was 220V and the one we have is 110V

You can also order a Quiet Cut 48V spindle but you will need a 48V power supply in addition to the 24V power supply you already had. We were trying to reduce from 2 power supplies to one which is what led us to the 24V spindle solution. The idea was this would be an improvement compared to the generic rotary tool. The 300W DC spindle solution is just that an entry level tool to get people started it is by no means the most powerful or capable spindle on the market. It is designed to be an entry level tool to get you going. We offer the option to select “none” in the configurator if you want to opt out of the entry level model and move straight into a more power solution.

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Is there a mount available for the Dewalt 611? It looks quite a bit larger. Has it been tested on the X-carve? Can we send back our spindles and mounts, since the mount now would also be different? Thanks.

  1. Yes you can send back any parts for a 100% refund.

  2. We currently have the [mount in stock for the Dewalt 660][1]

  3. We have ordered the mount for the 611 but it has not come in yet. We only have the prototypes which we have tested on the 1000mm X-Carve and it worked well.

The mount fits the 611

and the Water Cooled spindle.

[1]: https://www.inventables.com/technologies/dewalt-dw660-spindle-mount

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Nathan

There is a mount available for the 660. I did go to there web site to see what the specs are for that trim router. It appears to be a single speed of 30,000rpm. Also the reviews were not real good only scoring a 4 out of 5.
I own a Ridgid 2401 trim router that is variable speed 20,000 to 30,000 RPM. The folks reviewing it on the Ridgid web site had better things to say about the router it scored 5 of 5.

I will be building a mount for it for my machine when my machine arrives.

The big thing to watch is the amount of weight you are hanging on the gantry and how far from the center of the gantry that weight is.

Zach

It’s good to see that the folks there are on top of the problem and working on a fix. I understand that in order to keep the price of your machines affordable for the hobbyist that you can’t put a $400 water cooled spindle on the machine.

Dave

So, if we didn’t get a return address label then we weren’t affected? I would send you my bad spindle for analysis - and the mount in exchange for a universal mount. I believe I received the standard, non-upgraded 24v spindle (super loud and incredibly weak?)

Sorry - just saw your other post. I sent an e-mail to help@

@Earwigger ya, if anyone has a problem just email help@ and they will solve it to your satisfaction.

Zach, Thank you so much for the quick reply and super-fast shipment of my replacement spindle! I swapped them out and it is powering up fine in Easel and UGS. Had to run out before getting a chance to run a project, but it is promising that the spindle is responding to both programs (the old one wouldn’t respond to either). Thanks again and I will keep you updated.

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@JasonCummings sure thing.

Same here @Zach_Kaplan - Sam took good care of me and is sending me requested parts instead of a replacement spindle which is perfect for my needs.

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Unfortunately, that was short lived. Got 80% through a project last night and the spindle stopped and snapped off another of my bits. Not responding to UGS or easel. Zach, what is your recommendation from here? I want a setup that is going to be reliable. I have a 611 router and could use that setup, but it would be nice to leave the Dewalt freed up and have a dedicated spindle for the Xcarve. What do you find is the most reliable setup? I don’t mind spending more if it is going to give me more piece of mind.

Thank you so much! Jason

Hi @JasonCummings here’s a list of spindles we have tested in our shop. My personal favorite is #10 on the list.

Please contact help@inventables so they can send you a return address label for the spindle you have and work with you on the best replacement solution for your situation.

Zach, I have a pending order that I just placed last weekend that includes the 24V spindle. Do you know if this spindle issue is only affecting some of the spindles or are all of the 24V spindles affected. I ask because I already have one of the 48V quiet cut spindles that I could use instead. I was hoping to be able to drop to a single power supply when upgrading to X-Carve, but if the spindle isn’t reliable, then I could just drop the new power supply and spindle and go back to what I was using on my Shapeoko 2 ( 2 power supplies and the spindle speed controller ).

Hi @JamesSinger it is not every spindle. So far I believe there have been 13 reports. We are asking for them back and providing a return address label to send them back to the manufacturer.

If you wish to remove it from your order email help@ and they can take it off.