X carve upgrade to .8KW water cooled spindle W closed loop cooling

more expensive but boy do they push air. probably get away with using just 2 fans if you get these http://www.amazon.com/Swellder-AFC1212DE-120mmx38mm-Bearing-BRUSHLESS/dp/B00XDXX01C/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1435781083&sr=8-13&keywords=delta+fan+120mm

The very thing I use and love!

Guys make sure you pay attention to the sizes on the connections for this application. Most of the Spindles out of china tend to have a smaller connection size than the “stock” G1/4 (3/8ID 5/8OD) connections on the coolers. I just put a small converter tube in mine and it seems to work fine in testing so far. Just keep on eye on the tube and connection sizes though so you do not hit a roadblock due to that when you put your system into place.

well the G1/4 connections are the same as what PC watercooling uses which kinda standardizes everything. especially if your trying to put radiators up and what not. but yes i have found out the hard way. check all the specifications… i ordered some end mills with 3/8" shafts… and i dont have a collet for that. didnt read all the perimeters of the bits. lesson learned.

if you want to use a non submergence pump i’d recommend going with either a DDC or a D5 style pump. DDC is more heavy duty. and D5 is abit less powerful but better for tight spaces. both of those pumps are ultra common in water cooling PC’s so there is a ton of accessories, tops, mounts, fittings to fit either style pump. (neither is really inexpensive however)

http://www.performance-pcs.com/ is a good resource for PC watercooling equipment and would also have supplies that may be relevant to this application.

This issue I found before I placed my orders was that the connections on the spindle were not a standard G1/4 size. They are a bit smaller and will not allow standard tubing to be used for G1/4 connections. SOME spindles have the larger “right” sized connections as they are a replaceable part and can be changed. But they are not easy to find and not cheap either I found. Basically my system runs 90% G1/4 tubing and then changes over to the “spindle” tubing just outside my mill box and then run to and from the spindle in the “spindle” sized tubing. So far this has worked fine for me. I use the 1/4" ID, 1/32" wall Thickness, 5/16" OD Latoratory clear Tygon PVC - See more at: 5/16″ OD Laboratory clear Tygon PVC Tube For Spindle Cooling System $1.84/feet | sized tubing. Though I sourced it from someplace else in bulk for cheaper. But most guys do not need or desire 35ft of it for any reason!
I do wish they were all the G1/4 sized connections as it would be one less thing to get setup on a new system.

I am going with the 0.8kW water cooled spindle too. It was mentioned ( X-Carve Spindles - #19 by BartDring ) the power and water lines wont fit in the stock drag chain. Is the standard kit one 30mm? If so, Has anyone tried a 40mm to see if the water lines and power would all fit?

I wouldn’t try to put the power and water lines into the drag chain. I was planning on just running that over the top. I don’t think the water line would stand all the bending and motion of the drag chain, and you probably don’t want to have the 400HZ AC lines in there causing interference with the stepper lines.

I have not tried to run them side by side in the same cable chain. I plan to run a second cable chain beside the main one to handle the spindle and the water lines. Having a 3D printer allows me to print out a bigger sized chain and to make custom attachment points for the dual chains. This is on my list for CAD work tonight as a matter of fact. I was lucky enough to have bought my spindle and VFD from a US seller and the bonus is that I got a nice full manual in ENGLISH and it is very well written from what I have seen so far. Going over settings tonight and just about have everything set up the way I want. Should have the built in relay running the coolant pump shortly.

As a point of fact though you really do want to try and find a way to put them in a cable chain of some sort as they need protection from kinking and abrasion. Kinking the water supply off during a job would fry you spindle and I do not even want to think about the idea of the wire somehow being nicked or abraded and shorting. Unlikely I know, but not something I wish to risk. Though I used a 14/4 SJOOW cable for the VFD to spindle run so I have few worries about it wearing out.

I made a custom drag chain for my Laser cutter out of laser cut acrylic that carries the water cooling tubes. No problems encountered, you just have to make sure that curves during motion have a radius a good bit above the point where the tubes will naturally kink.

ooooo my mistake i missread the post about being or not being g1/4

You guys who have set up these VFD spindles before. Do you use a breaking resistor? Or is that unnecessary at these power levels (800W)? Did you wire a ground line to the spindle, or just U, V, and W? Did you need to make any programming changes to the VFD?

I have not installed the resistor yet, but I am thinking about it. I ran the full 4 wires to the spindle, ground and all. I did make a few changes to the programming on my VFD so I could use the built in pot and the relay inside for the water pump. I am running out tot he airport right now so I am not able to check those settings. But I can give you the link to the manual I got with mine which is super easy to read and makes sense for once. Who ever wrote it had a very firm grasp of English. With this you should be able to get it all set up and running. If not hit me up after the 13th and I can make some notes on mine and send them your way.

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=286

This is also where I bought my VFD and Spindle from. Prices were just as good as Ebay over all and it shipped way faster. I had it in my hands in 3 days!

I’m a little confused on these VFD Spindles. It seems you can buy an 800w spindle easily, but I have yet to see a 800w inverter? Can someone clarify how you would set this up?

1.5KW VFD Inverter would power the 800W (0.8KW) Spindle after a few settings changes.

You can just use a 1.5 KW inverter. My spindle (the 110v model) came with a 110v 1.5KW inverter. I just have some extra capacity.

Cool thanks, this is what I thought must be happening but didn’t want to assume!

Most of the time you set them up with a little over head and just adjust for the motor settings. I use the 1.5 on my 800w and the 2.2 on my 1.5kw spindles and they work great.

About to finally pull the trigger on an 0.8kW spindle but have been stuck on if I should get an 110V or 220V version. I originally went with a 220V 1.5kW until I found out its too heavy, so now wondering if its still worth running 220V out to the garage or just sticking with 110V. Anyone found any differences in power or performance between the two?

So I got my new 800W water cooled spindle working last night (on the bench).

I set up the thermaltake all in one cooling setup (pump, reservoir, and radiator). I did remove the 3/8 ID connectors on the radiator, and replaced them with brass 1/4 ID connectors. I used teflon tape to get a good seal. So far (after a bit of tightening) it doesn’t appear to leak. I used some 1/4 ID 5/16 OD tubing from mcmaster that fits the spindle perfectly.

On the VFD, I made the mistake of doing a factory reset before programming it. It turns out that there isn’t really a 110V model, and this one is a 220V model with some settings changed. I didn’t know that. So I set the frequency (max and base), and the motor settings like revs and max current, and fired it up. It spun up, made some interesting noises, and shut down with an overload fault. Then I noticed the voltage was set to 220 (which seemed odd that it would overload, if the source is only 110), but I set the max voltage and the motor voltage to 110, and now it spins, and is very quiet. According to the VFD, when running with no load, it is drawing about .3 Amps.

I’m a little worried that there may be some other settings that I messed up by doing the factory reset, so I tried emailing the seller.

Now the problem is to get the mount working. The cast aluminum mount fits the motor perfectly, but is too wide to mount on the x-carve z plate. The Dewalt 611 mount is 2mm too wide. I’m not sure how I would shim it.

110V is SLIGHTLY less powerful overall but I doubt you would notice on a belt driven mill as belt stretch would become a bigger factor before lack of spindle power would.