Went through one handheld and then upgraded…my opinion…well worth the money.
I’m really happy with mine. I mainly use it for 3D carving and often run it on 8-10 hour long jobs. I also like that it’s MUCH quieter, and power efficient as well. Plus you can define speeds for multiple tools and it changes speed automatically.
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If asked, I would say that upgrading to the 65mm spindle was hands down the best upgrade for my Shapeoko… Made a HUGE difference in all aspects of operating the device. Quiet, powerful, capable… I’ll never go back to the router.
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I’ve had my 65mm spindle for a year and have never second guessed getting it. I went through 3 routers from Carbide 3D (2 under warranty) and felt routers were going to be a continuous replacement issue. I cut a lot of Corian which is pretty hard on routers.
Thanks to carbide 3d fantastic team I canceled the router and bought the 65 mm spindle. Also thanks to those who replied it was very helpful
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You wont regret it at all!!
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What is the runout on the 65mm spindle with the new bearings?
C3D is about a thou total or 4-5 tenths per side using a the supplied quarter inch collet and pin measured with a Starret 3809A dial test indicator mounted 90 degrees to mitigate cosign factor.
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Does anyone have a picture of their 65mm VFD install? I am interested in seeing where the VFD unit is typically placed.
Do you mean the height in the clamp/mount? I think mine is set 2.5” from the bottom of the mount to the bottom casting of the spindle.
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Usually folks bolt the box to the side of the table — mirror image of what I show for my electronics at:
Sorry, I misread the post. The VFD box is located at the back of my table close to the C3D controller. This will be moved up to the front left of the table once it goes into the wood shop. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for that. Do you typically need access to the vfd control box or is it usually a turn it on and forget it type operation?
The manual discusses this:
https://carbide3d.com/hub/docs/65mm-vfd-spindle/
pg. 14
Press the Spindle Enable button on front of VFD controller to enable the spindle. The spindle is enabled when the button is depressed and the button LED is on. The spindle is disabled when the LED is off.
I believe best practice is to press that to release it so as to remove power from the spindle when doing a tool change, then press it to engage it after.
I will yield to the folks who actually have a spindle — I use a BitRunner w/
because I invested in it before we offered a spindle.
There are some that use a power strip and leave the C3D/Spindle Controller power switches on and then shutdown the machines and power off bot controllers with the power strip.
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I mounted mine up high next to my S3. I can get to the Disable and power buttons easily from there and the VFD has air flow on all sides except the back.
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Mine is underneath the back left side of the table and reaching under to turn it off was a pain. I have it on a dedicated circuit and the breaker is easier to reach so I flip that instead.
Mine has the “control” panel extendable with a cable. So I have that mounted to the front of the table. I really never do anything with it, but seeing the speed on there is nice.