The Elusive Makita - Canada

When you get a spare moment (what the heck is that :smile:), can you tell me how warm/hot the Makita gets doing a carve?

I checked it by touch when I first put it one and it was definitely cooler than the stock spindle. The stock spindle I couldn’t even touch after it was running for what I thought was a short run (maybe 10mins). I check it again once I get going with some bigger projects and let you know!

Now to get this offset sorted!

I think I’ve got this dialed in as best I can now. I’m running way faster now, it’s great! Just did a project last night at 2000mm/min and 1mm DOC. I’d like to get my DOC up a bit, but I’m still getting some slight ridges in my cut (which are more pronounced the deeper my DOC is). I think I narrowed it down though!

The ridges are on all sides, my belts are tensioned well (I went from 3lbs @ 1" to 1/2lbs @ 1" and there was no difference in the cut for me). The V-Wheels are appropriately tightened and the steppers are getting probably almost too much current (no thermal shut down yet). I threw a square onto a cut last night and it is not square! Getting so close I can taste it! The problem here is that the router is square in both directions. I’m now lead to believe I’m getting some bad run out from my 1/8" bushing adapter. The cut seems to be getting progressively further out as a pretty constant angle, it’s slight, but it’s there. So I’m off to order some Elaire collets! It’s too bad the shipping is about the same price as the product itself, but I’m sure it’s worth.

TL;DR 1/8" bushing adapter = bad runout, buying Elaire collets.

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Ran a test last night before I went and ordered those Elaire collets (I probably will regardless). I removed the 1/8" bushing and ran a quick job with just a 1/4" bit. And unfortunately, no change in edge quality. :frowning: Now I’m starting to think that it might be my router mounting. I used a 0.06" shim to make the Makita fit into the Dewalt mount and when I tighten the mount the mount in totally closed (if that makes sense). Basically I’m thinking that my shim isn’t thick enough and the router is shifting slightly.

I’m going to look for a better shim, but I was wondering if @InventablesXcarve is working on a mount for the Makita / VFD spindles. Maybe @Zach_Kaplan can comment on this, I thought I had read somewhere on the forum that there was a mount in the works for ~65mm diameter spindles.

Rusty - get that 3d printed spacer. Works great for me.
Check 3dhubs.com. There might be a guy with a printer just across the street.

Hi Rusty

I have been selling some Makita mount through the forums lately. Designed by another forum member and machined here in San Diego from aluminum. I’m selling them for my cost (which includes shipping) for $95. I have one left if your interested. The main thread for the mount is here:

Thanks, I will keep it in mind if my other solutions don’t work out. $95 US is a bit steep for my wallet right now, but I don’t doubt that they are worth the money!

No problem… Just saw you talking about this and thought I’d offer… I do like the idea of painting the top of the router thought :wink:

I went ahead and added a layer of bottle to my mount and the cut has improved! Still not perfect, but better than before. The cut is still slightly out of square, which is causing the ridges. The router is still square in the mount, so I’m lead to believe that there is still a bit of flex in the mount while cutting. The flex is in all directions so I doubt adding the X-gantry stiffening mod is going to change this much (I do plan to do this in the future).

I’m still hoping for a 65mm Mount from @InventablesXcarve (@Zach_Kaplan). :wink: :wink:

I’ll try to remember to get some photos of the cut edge up tonight.

Mine just came yesterday… I’ve replaced the smaller spindle mount with the Dewalt 611 mount and I’ll be wrapping with aluminum and inserting the Makita today. The Elaire collet is in the mail and hopefully will show up next week.

It’s all coming together and I’m pretty excited. :smile: :thumbsup:

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That is very exciting! I have some aluminium, but I’m having issues get it bent into a good shim. Good luck, you’ll have to let me know how it goes!

I have it shimmed and square, so I’m going to try to mill a pocket tonight.

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lol

:joy:

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Wow… how do you even do that?! :smile:

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How did you fashion your shim?

You may laugh at this but until I can get a sleeve of 1.5 to 2mm aluminum, I am using an apple sauce can, a tuna can, and some of the disposable baking pan aluminum. I cut each to the same size and wrapped the Makita in them and then slipped all of it into the 611 mount. It did the trick though and the surface that I just finished milling is just as smooth or smoother than before.

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:joy: That is awesome! Resourcefulness at its best! Sounds like it works better than me solution though.

I found another issue that was adding to my ridges, I guess my x-gantry was out of square. It was small, about 2mm, but once I fixed it everything seems to be cut not bad!

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Could one of you gentleman do me a favor?

I am trying to find the actual weight of just the Mikita spindle. Not the wiring or base, just the spindle weight. Can one of you help me out with this?

Other than being lighter weight and a different range of speed, what features on the Mikita makes it better when compared to the Dewalt 611 in your opinion?

Thanks in advance.

Happy X-Carving!!!

Mine weighs in at 1500g or 3.307lbs

Heh, now to re-square the machine…

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Thank you for taking the time to weigh your unit for me. Much appreciated

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