I’m curious to hear what you hear back Griff.
60k???..yes it’s a complete sentence
Oh, they have a version with an integrated tool changer now too:
https://mctinfo.net/amb-spindle/1050-fme-w-di
That has possibilities. 
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Thanks @gmack. 
Used to have a Kress 1050 FME-1 (from memory), when I lived in the UK. Sold it to @Luke when I left there though (thanks Brexit 
).
IMO the ~$300 AMB 1050 FME-P would be a huge step-up from the Dewalt and Makita routers. It has a precision ER16 collet and balanced nut, more power, and is lighter weight. As shown below, a one flute endmill might be required to get an adequate chip-load for 6061-T6 aluminum (0.001" according to @Vince.Fab). If he could still afford lunch after investing in that upgrade, he’d have more time to eat it. 
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Right, but for that price I can get a 1.5kW VFD spindle so that’s where I’m trying to figure out the right spindle that provides good RPM range and power for a good price.
Maybe these people can provide reasonable shipping for the Jianken JGD spindles and reasonably priced precision collets. (Assuming you end up with something that warrants their use.)
I have one of the new (ish) AMB 1050 FME-W DI tool-changing spindles. I bought it to put on a Shapeoko 3, but it took long enough to arrive that I ended up upgrading to one of @Luke’s new toys. Still Grbl, though.
It works great. I bought it to mostly cut wood, but I’m mostly milling out aluminum bits for CNC upgrades still. I’ve done some testing of automated tool changing, but am mostly using it like a power drawbar at the moment. It certainly makes manual changes easy, but it’s an expensive way to do that.
Driving ATCs with Grbl and the rest of the usual tools isn’t all that easy yet. I’m working with CNCjs; as of 1.9.18 it now has the ability to pass tool numbers from ‘T~ M6’ into your tool-change macro and remember which slots are in use across macro runs, which is a nice improvement. I’ve trying to document and open-source things as I build them, but I don’t really have a lot of useful ATC bits for people to build on yet.
I have a video of it successfully changing tools a couple times here:
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I love the apprehension in your voice when you say “ok unloading”
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Since the AMB 1050 is a European product, it must be made to operate at 220V 50Hz instead of 240 60Hz unless it is dual voltage, operating it at 240V 60Hz would change the specs like the motor speed. I tried finding detailed specs and have not found them yet. Support in North America may also be limited but probably not worse than a Chinese spindle.
The tag on mine says 220-240V, 1050W 4.8A 50/60 Hz:
Running on 60 Hz power, it maxes out at just under 25,000 RPM for me. Its low end was actually more like 4,000 RPM, but it wasn’t very stable until around 5,000 RPM.
I bought mine through Midwest Circuit Technologies (@justinclift gave a link a few entries above). Larry at MCT hadn’t seen the FME-W DI before I ordered one, but he’s been able to get questions answered for me from AMB’s engineering support people in Germany, so at least that side of things has been fine. I haven’t needed to RMA anything; I’m not sure how that’d work out. Probably better than generic spindles, at least.
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That’s really nifty.
It doesn’t seem to have anything for measuring the length of the new tool after picking it up, which many autochanger systems have.
Not sure if GRBL could really cope with that anyway. I’d probably use a different (non-GRBL) system that could, but each to their own, etc.
You could get a step-up transformer. From what I’ve seen, only the FME-800 is available for 120 V. As long as voltage and frequency are within the specified operating range, they shouldn’t affect speed. Speed on this router (like the Dewalt and Makita) is controlled by circuitry which senses the rotation speed and provides the proper voltage to the motor windings to maintain it at the setting (if there’s enough power).
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This one doesn’t either (pre-set in software?) That’s a really quiet spindle, especially compared to routers like the AMB!
Good point. That’d probably be the way to go.
The AMB (Kress) I bought, was from DamenCNC, as I was in the EU at the time:
https://www.damencnc.com/en/milling-motors/amb-kress/amb-kress-milling-motors
They have their own ATC systems, for higher end spindles:
https://www.damencnc.com/en/milling-motors/teknomotor/atc-motor-iso30
The pricing on those… likely need to sell the family car, plus some kidneys, and maybe auction off a few kids.
The AMB with the automatic tool changer (a fraction of the cost) isn’t listed. 
Their website does have some interesting pieces on there, eg aluminium vacuum table without a kidney-sacrificing price tag:
https://www.damencnc.com/en/vacuum-table-vt4030-st/a1797?c=281
Well the system appears to be designed to operate in both electrical world, I was afraid that it was a European product made for Europe since these details were not mentioned. .
A few people here have written macros to measure the endmills and reset the Z0 after a tool change using a probe and CNCjs. @Luke just posted a YouTube video showing this for a manual tool change. I’m would think that this could be incorporated into an automatic tool change routine.
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Wow, yep. Combining those two together looks like it’d be a win.
Sorotec sells them (only in the EU though)! There’s no claim of runout comparable to that of the 1050 FME-P (3 times improved over standard). The Jianken ATC seems like a great value especially considering it’s performance . Check out his other videos too. More on noise here.
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