I run my huanyang VFD at 200-300 rpm to use an edge finder all the time. It will only run for a few minutes and then shut down, just enough time to locate a corner. I don’t know if its bad for it but it works.
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Can’t speak to the specifics of the Carbide spindle selection but…
My spindle is happy down at 800 RPM for the edge finder and will run that way for longer than I’ve ever tried (2.2kW Huanyang spindle and VFD). On a water cooled spindle the min RPM tends to be pretty low as you’re not driving a cooling fan and don’t need a min speed for cooling airflow. I run it at < 4,000RPM for a few minutes to warm it up slowly each time I use it.
If the C3D spindle is air cooled then that would be a very good reason to set the minimum speed high enough for cooling airflow to avoid users cooking it.
If you don’t turn on any of the low speed torque boosting modes or any servo feedback, voltage boost etc. then you’re unlikely to overload the windings at low speed, but you may run out of torque and stall it.
I also drill as low as 2,500 RPM and, although somewhat limited in torque (VFD spindles are almost constant torque), it’s quite happy at those speeds.
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Wow, what size tooling are you using at such low rpm (for a high speed spindle) ? The best I can do is 8k rpm for 4mm drill bit. Tools bigger than that and the drills are breaking, or at the lower rpm the spindle tends to stall.
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I’m typically using a 3 or 4mm solid carbide 90 degree as a spot drill, at 3,000 or so in Aluminium, the trick is enough Z feed rate. I squirt isopropanol on the cut to keep it lubricated.
I also use 3-6mm regular drill bits in Aluminium, after spot drilling with the solid carbide, the big ones go down to 2,500 and the smaller ones I run faster. I run lubricant on all the drills in Aluminium.
I run bigger drills in MDF where I need lots of holes (e.g. drilling spoilboard for Tee nuts) and I don’t want to wear out carbide cutters boring the holes. This works fine up to about 10mm in the spindle.
I’ve stalled the spindle once or twice, but those were with fat fingered mistakes on the feed per rev in the drilling op setup.
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Is the target still 1 thou per tooth for drills? Or is there a new/better rule of thumb?
On the last job I was running 75-100mm / min at 3,200 RPM on a 5mm drill in 6061 T6 Aluminium. That gives 0.024 to 0.032 mm / rev.
1 thou per tooth would be 0.05mm / rev which is twice as large but I was working my way up and looking for a low vibration combo. I found the start where the normal 118 degree drill is in the 90 degree spot drill hole vibrates quite a bit and it’s better to push the feed override up to get through that quickly. After that I was getting a good, low vibration hole with long stringy chips only broken by the dwell / retract moves and was probably being a bit too 
to keep jacking up the feed rate and depth / tooth.
Being too chicken and not feeding fast enough seems to be the real kiss of death for drilling, on my mildly modded SO3 at least. You can probably push harder on a Pro.
I’ve been enjoying the Carbide Spindle over my last few projects but I can’t help but feel like Sweepy may now need some modifications. With the Carbide router the latch on the Sweepy to release/tighten the Sweepy in place would completely overlap the bottom of the router (ie. where both bolts holding the Sweepy latch are over the routers lower body). Now with the new aircooled spindle I often find only 1 bolt of the Sweepy latch is over the spindle body and the lowest bolt of the latch sits just below the spindle body because of the lower shape of the spindle actually gets smaller where the air comes out of the spindle. Am I overthinking it or will this not increase the chance of Sweepy bolts coming loose or possible even break/crack in this area and possible jam up between the project and spindle (damage to sweepy, cause missed steps, ruin project, …). I guess I just always though the 2 bolts of the Sweepy latch should overlap the router/spindle base for best results/performance.
(edit: I know I can just raise the Sweepy but this means it’s often too high for the length of the bit and sawdust gets everywhere escaping Sweepy thus defeating it’s purpose)
Totally agree it needs a rework.
Hopefully this gets you by
https://community.carbide3d.com/t/new-spindle-and-dust-collection
We’ve got an updated bottom section for sweepy in production right now. We just got pics of the first shots a few days ago.
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Awesome! As a spindle purchaser I’d love an email when those are released to get an order in if there are quantity limitations.
There should not be any quantity limitations, we should get a lot of them.
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Is there any timeline and when the VFD kits will be back in stock?
Hurry, I need one…lol!
Are performance curves (speed/torque curves) available for this spindle?
I just received my VFD spindle kit, and I’m wondering if it’s possible to put the power cable in the drag chain containing the controller cables. Looks like there should be plenty of room, and it would be really handy to have all the cables running to one side of the machine. I understand interference may be an issue, but is there perhaps a way to shield the power cable?
Apologies if I should have posted this elsewhere, I’m new to the community.
Thanks!
The routers on SO3 models run on the outside of drag chains to prevent electrical noise induced to stepper motors. I would think the same for other machines. The 60 cycle sine wave could interfere with operation. Electrical fields are generated by power cords. What do install documents recommend?
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Thanks. Everything I’ve seen says to use the left drag chain. I went ahead and did it. Not thrilled with it though – the cable is NOT long enough for controllers that are mounted on the right side of the machine. I have a custom enclosure. I mounted the controller on the outer right side of the enclosure, as close as possible, and I wound up with maybe a couple of inches of play. Seeing as this is a custom (and non-detachable) cable, I would have preferred a longer length for more positioning flexibility. I have the XL, not sure how XXL owners would get the power cable to reach the right side.
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But I should add that I LOVE the fact that there are way fewer cables with the VFD than I had with a Makita and a BitRunner. Just wish I could put all cabling on the same side, and/or that the spindle power cable was longer. 
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