I am thinking about switching back to quiet Spindle from the Dewalt 611. There is a couple of reasons for this. 1 is the noise. The Dewalt is loud. I am looking at building a sound box for the vacuum, but there is not much I can do to quiet the router. Secondly is the speed. The Dewalt is a demon on speed and torque, and can cut through plywood like butter. But when trying to do something finer, even at the lowest speed, it is fray the wood instead of cutting. I also miss the speed control and auto cutoff when the carving is finished. Anyone else having concerns on the Dewalt?
Also, is there a way to easily swap between he two? I see usefulness for the deWalt, but it is not the one-size-fits-all spindle. I would be nice to be able to replace them easily without adjusting the v-wheels, which is my least favorite thing to do.
Hi, have you considered a water cooled spindle? I don’t have one myself but believe they offer greater speed control and are much quieter. The torque of the DeWalt is great for the type of stuff I do, and I invested in a decent set of ear protectors, with a radio built in! I guess spindle choice sometimes comes down to what you’re trying to do, and how fast you’re wanting to do it.
As for speed control I have the Super PID but haven’t had time to install it yet.
Try a Harbor Freight trim router . They are a lot quiter and I have been running mine for a year with no problems
For sound, I would second the water cooled spindle if you don’t mind spending on it. I am running one (800w w/ vfd, similar to this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/water-cooling-800w-110v-cnc-spindle-motor-1500w-variable-frequency-inverter-vfd-/181488375805?hash=item2a418cd7fd:g:XJ0AAOSwDk5T0iXm)
As for the finish, what kind of cutting tool are you using and what are your speeds and feeds? For soft materials I usually use O-flute end mills at very high RPM which gives a nice clean cut. Also consider that sometimes you can go too slow – if you don’t move fast enough relative to spindle RPM to actually remove material you may end up leaving a bad finish. I’ve never had this problem with very soft materials (wood, plastic) but it can definitely be an issue with aluminum.
Kyle, are you still liking this spindle? I just had another router die (2nd one now) and I’m considering the water cooled, but was wondering if it has stood the test of time, and what your experiences have been with configuring it to use the spindle speed commands in the gcode…
@DarrylKegg So far I have had no problems with the water cooled spindle. For speed control, I am using LinuxCNC so this would not apply to those using the X-Controller or GRBL type boards, but I have a USB RS485 adapter used to communicate with the VFD controller.
The VFD controller does have an analog input which should support the 0-10v spindle speed output of the X-Controller. The X-Controller was not available when I purchased my X-Carve so I opted to use LinuxCNC when I got the water cooled spindle so I could get spindle on/off and speed control.
