TorchHypnosis
Plastic
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2019
- Location
- Lacey WA, USA
Hello, and thank you for reading. I built a mill/lathe hybrid to manufacture graphite tools for glassblowers as a proof of concept. I made my own spindles out of parts from McMaster-Carr and McGuire bearing (that's a lot of Mc's) and drive the spindles with a blower motor and for the end mill tool a vacuum cleaner motor (because the RPMs were ball park) but it is now time for me to step up my machine now that I know my proof of concept checks out, and I have already started production.
The lathe turns at about .75 revolutions per second, which turns the graphite blank I am milling. The end mill turns at about 30,000 RPM's. I am milling high density fine grain EDM graphite. I already purchased a variable frequency drive, 2.2 kw. I bought a Telemechanique French made one because I didn't want to purchase a Chinese VFD because I wanted support on the unit. I would (of course) rather buy a high end spindle motor made in Germany, Italy or the States, but I simply cannot afford one at this time. I am looking at some Chinese HSD clones. What I am looking at are the square ones with ceramic bearings. I know I need ceramic bearings, but I do not know what RPM's to get, there is one that spins at 18,000, and there is another spinning at 24,000. I know for the rough cuts, slower RPM's is better. I understand the spindle will heat up if the VFD sets the RPM's too low...I'm thinking I need the 24,000 model, but I am not sure. But, MOST IMPORTANT, when it comes to the Chinese spindles, the way they rate their watt usage is not the same as how German, US and Italian manufacturers rate their watt rating. I think I may need to get a 4 kw spindle motor to be driven by my 2.2 kw VFD just to have the headroom. Is that going to break my inverter? Is a 4 kw motor going to draw more of a load, or does it just have more power? Any information anyone can give me on how many amps a spindle will draw would be helpful. I don't want to trigger safety on my inverter (I need it to RUN!) or burn any of my components out. Does this make sense? Thanks again!
The lathe turns at about .75 revolutions per second, which turns the graphite blank I am milling. The end mill turns at about 30,000 RPM's. I am milling high density fine grain EDM graphite. I already purchased a variable frequency drive, 2.2 kw. I bought a Telemechanique French made one because I didn't want to purchase a Chinese VFD because I wanted support on the unit. I would (of course) rather buy a high end spindle motor made in Germany, Italy or the States, but I simply cannot afford one at this time. I am looking at some Chinese HSD clones. What I am looking at are the square ones with ceramic bearings. I know I need ceramic bearings, but I do not know what RPM's to get, there is one that spins at 18,000, and there is another spinning at 24,000. I know for the rough cuts, slower RPM's is better. I understand the spindle will heat up if the VFD sets the RPM's too low...I'm thinking I need the 24,000 model, but I am not sure. But, MOST IMPORTANT, when it comes to the Chinese spindles, the way they rate their watt usage is not the same as how German, US and Italian manufacturers rate their watt rating. I think I may need to get a 4 kw spindle motor to be driven by my 2.2 kw VFD just to have the headroom. Is that going to break my inverter? Is a 4 kw motor going to draw more of a load, or does it just have more power? Any information anyone can give me on how many amps a spindle will draw would be helpful. I don't want to trigger safety on my inverter (I need it to RUN!) or burn any of my components out. Does this make sense? Thanks again!