Anyone put a Kress 1050FME-1 on their SO3?

Again, sounds like I’m getting ahead of myself, but I have to ask. In all the research I’m doing, I get the impression that a slower spindle would be better for aluminum and possibly PCBs. Has anyone put a Kress 1050FME-1, which goes down to 5000 rpm on a SO3?

How hard do you think it would be? Are there any drawbacks such as cutter sizes it will take or clearance? I know it’s over $300, but it seems a shame to spend $125 up front to get the Dewalt and later spend that money again to upgrade when I might just start off with it. It seems like offering an adaptor for this would be a good product. Thanks.

Using a real, quality spindle is a great idea. What we have thus far on alternative spindles is on the wiki: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Spindle_Options

If the Kress is too expensive then I highly recommend the generic 1.5KW Chinese import spindles. They aren’t the same quality as the Kress nor will they last as long but they are great value for money, very quiet, a lot more powerful (than the Dewalt) and have better RPM control (than the Dewalt). The minimum RPM you can reasonably run them at is about 10-12K RPM which is good for aluminium if you use a single flute cutter or use a 2 flute with a shallow but fast cut.

The bottom end for the Makita RT0701 is 10,000 r.p.m.

What’s the torque like at that rpm?

Seems fine — it has the same sort of speed control which the Dewalt has.

Fair enough, quite a bit cheaper than the dewalt too

Yeah, drawbacks for the Makita:

  • 65mm diameter — needs an adapter or different spindle mount
  • single source for precision collets, no ER-style options
  • teal colour — need to try the MLCS Rock 30.

So I haven’t put one on yet, but I intend to. I have the Kress already (from a previous project) so it was a no brainer decision. I don’t see any issues with it, apart from having to adapt a different mount to fit, which will be pretty straightforward I think.

Now all I need is my SO3, which hasn’t been shipped yet.

Hi olly, Which Kress do you have, the 800 FME, 1050 FME-1 or 1050 FME-P?
These are 230V units, and the 1050 type will go down to 5000rpm. I also understand
there is a 110V version in the 800 family.

Are you in the US? If so, does it work correctly on US 220V 60Hz power?
Also, how did you obtain it?

I have the Kress 1050FME. The machine is a good choice, especially if your cutting different materials like wood, plastic and soft metals. For aluminium i use a 6mm mill max. The rpm should be a minimum of 10.000 because of the weak support the Shapoko has in the Y direction. Otherwise you run into trouble…

Hi Kerry. I have the 1050FME-1.
I’m in UK, so can’t comment on your power concerns.
And as I’m in Europe, I got it direct from a german CNC supplier (along with the mounting bracket).

Hi Olly,

Sorry to go off topic a bit but i was wandering how your experiences were with importing to the UK?
I believe we have to add 20% tax onto whatever the cost is but besides that how did it go and how long did it take to get to your house?
cheers

Hi Graeme,
So all pretty smooth I hope. I’m in the middle of it.
Received shipping notification on Monday.
Received text from Fedex today (Thursday) saying I needed to pay the duty, which means it’s made it to the UK I believe.
Phoned up and paid the duty; they said it would be with me by 6pm tomorrow.
So 5 days if it does actually turn up. It’s a 7 day service that carbide used (fedex international economy) so I wasn’t expecting it til Monday.
I’ll post an update when it does arrive, along with an assessment of the state of the packaging.
Also I’ll give a breakdown of the duty I paid - it’s more like 25% so I’m hoping there’s documentation detailing how it was calculated included in the delivery.
Olly

Cheers Olly,
Looking forward to your reply and to hear how you get on with the Kress

So machine did arrive on Friday (5 days) and was none the worse for wear.
No duty paperwork included, so assuming that will follow.

Built it and installed the Kress. So far so good.
Going to be a problem with reach though.
Using a standard mounting bracket in the standard mounting place, it looks like this:

That’s with the Z plate at what I reckon is the lowest safe place for it (any lower and is in danger of falling off the bearings). As you can see, there is a lot of room between the end of the tool and the base of the machine.

So it’s useable (and useful) like this, but I think I will eventually need to engineer a bracket that mounts the spindle lower.

Hi olly,

do you have the type information about the mounting bracket that you bought or a link to the part? Did you have to modify it to mount it on the SO3?

Best regards,
Reiner

Hi Reiner,

http://cnc-plus.de/en/Router-Accessories/43mm-Euro-Neck-Spindle-Mount--Bracket-Clamp-.html

It comes with no mounting holes, so I had to drill and tap two M5 holes into the back, with 60mm between centres (IIRC), in order to fix it to the Z plate. Then I just used the bolts that came with the SO3 for the standard motor mount.

I plan to mill (using the SO3 of course) an extension bracket out of aluminium that will enable me to mount it closer to the wasteboard. When I do, and assuming it’s successful, I’ll upload the designs. It’ll be a while though; as it stands, it’s good enough for the first few projects I have in mind, so those take priority.