Do I need HDZ ? What Spindle?

Standard (including straight) woodworking router bits can be used on Shapeokos. Unlike endmills, their cutting diameters aren’t limited by router/spindle collet sizes. Material removal rates (MRRs) on Shapeokos is limited by machine force/rigidity rather than router/spindle power. Done properly, increasing cutting diameters enables higher MRRs by increasing router/spindle power usage instead of machine force. You may well find that you won’t need HDZ or a higher power router/spindle. The advantage of water or electric fan cooled HF spindles is that they are a lot quieter and are supposed to be rated on output power rather than input power like routers are. So, at its rated speed, a “800 Watt” HF spindle should have about the same output power as a “2 Horsepower” router. But, since Chinese HF spindle manufacturers don’t provide meaningful performance data, who knows about them!

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