the dewalt router runs way to fast for a end mill // is there a way to slow it down?
Most people are able to make it work quite well on wood, metals, and plastics…maybe we can help you get a speed and feed that will work for you? That said, beyond the speed knob on the router, your only option is something like SuperPID - which can get you down to about 5k.
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It’s something I had to get used to.
Actually I bought G wizard, just to help with the headache.
Once you find the right percentage of fine/rough for your machine, it works good, and has settings, just for these machines.
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Harbor Freight has this one https://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html at much less cost. I don’t know anything about the HF one, but I wonder if they are all basically the same circuitry.
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No, the Harbor Freight unit is simply a resistor which reduces the current, reducing torque — it also doesn’t work well w/ the electronic speed control circuit for the router. The VFDs actually tie into the electronic speed control, include a device to measure the current RPM, and will adjust current to maintain the desired RPM as torque requirements fluctuate when cutting.
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Obviously that’s not mentioned on the wiki because you didn’t post a link. Perhaps that is a thing that should be mentioned there because I’m sure other people might wonder if an inexpensive product listed as a router speed control would work.
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It is there, sort of: https://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Spindle_Control#Speed_Control
The actual discussion is at: http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=245&p=8114&hilit=dw660+speed+control#p8114
Going to add in some text now. Thanks for prompting me!
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I wouldn’t use one of these…
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You can NOT use a variable speed controller on ANY router that has a built in speed controller. You will fry the electronics.
Which includes the DeWalt 611 and the Makita RT07XX.
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I think this needs to be made very clear. If someone says something called a Superpid will work and you look it up and see it’s some fancy router speed controller and then you do a google search for “router speed controllers” and you find one at 20% the price and you don’t have a lot of knowledge about electronics, maybe you’re going to trust Harbor Freight. After all, HF is reliable and wouldn’t sell you something you wouldn’t be able to use and you didn’t see a warning on the HF page that it shouldn’t be used with variable speed routers. I think it’s a legitimate question for someone to ask. Will said he was going to clarify it on the wiki. I’m confident he will make it clear and explain why.
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I bought a brand new carpenter square from harbor freit and it is farther out of square than a rough cut piece of plywood on my 35 yr old table saw. I DO NOT trust harbor freight for anything I need any level of precision for. Grizzly is at least low priced and does have excellent customer service. I bought a cheap center punch that turned out very poorly designed and they refunded it and did not ask me to return it. Your comment that HF is “reliable” is the first time I have ever seen such. The only “warning” I have ever seen HF publish is their disclaimers of not responsible for anything. Good Luck
Sorry WIll if this is considered a rant, I think people who blindly trust will fall and get hurt. Granted it’s not politically correct and if you want to delete this than I have no problem, i was just trying to [quote=“Boothecus, post:10, topic:5608”]
make it clear and explain why
[/quote]
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HF wasn’t the point. The point was someone who didn’t know this stuff might look up speed controller on the internet and find ones available at a place that he/she might find personally reliable and think they’re applicable. I used HF as an example because it’s a well-known name and was the top google listing when I googled speed controller. Personally, just to be forthcoming, I’ve seldom found things I have purchased at HF to actually improve my quality or workflow. But I do know people trust them and more power to those people if they’re happy.
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Your point is accepted. To people who might look stuff up on the internet, well-known names are gained from branding and over advertising, and google top picks are gained from tags placed by those advertisers who simply want to draw those who look for a top pick to them. Neither of which has any relation to the trust worthiness of a vendor. Googler beware is my opinion. Happiness is the best medicine.
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New here but this old wood worker has used a router speed controller for many moon. Works great for for fine tuning cuts on a router table setup. I find it hard to believe it would not work great here for some fine tuning. Or does it have something to do with speed of cut by the software?
As was mentioned above, you can’t use an external speed control on a router with an internal speed control, they will fight each other. And the two routers supported by the Shapeoko 3 both have internal speed controls.
Additionally, the internal controls beat the external controls because they have built-in tachometers so the router can adjust speed while under load/no-load.
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Roger thanks.
The majority of the speed settings on Carbide Create are LESS THAN what the router runs, even at the lowest setting.
is everyone that is using this equipment running the router at “1” on the router?
if the software says to have the .25 flat endmill bit to be running at 7900rpm, are you setting the router on “1”?
The feeds and speeds in Carbide Create are oriented towards the Nomad — best thing to do is use the official charts: http://docs.carbide3d.com/support/#tooling-support and a machinist calculator as needed.
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Definitely agree with mikep, Super PID all the way!!! It is a great Shapeoko 3 upgrade (just not cheap). No problem running at 5,000 rpm.