Purchasing in the UK

Hi Everyone… hope this topic has not been asked before.
I am looking to purchase all the equipment for adding a 1.5kw water cooled spindle to my Shapeoko XL… The sound of my router is too loud man…too loud!!
My frustration is I live in the UK… !!!
I have tried to purchase on ebay and was told they had sold out… still waiting for my money back!!!
Has anyone have ideas of:
Buying individual items
buying all the items
That is
spindle motor 1.5
inverter(VFD)
water pump
spindle clamp mount
please feel free to give me all opportunities… being retired and in lock down!!!

Hi @tink07,

One of the best reason to move to a spindle IMHO :slight_smile:

Sorry to hear you had trouble purchasing on ebay, many of us got our spindles and VFD from Asia via e.g. Amazon or Alibaba, and it usually works out fine (in the sense that I have not heard people complaining about being scammed, everyone I saw here received their gear with no significant issues if any)

A few opinions:

  • it’s convenient to buy a kit when you have no very specific idea what you are looking for. Buying separate items will not necessarily be cheaper or more expensive, but you will spend more time searching (plus multiply the shipment risk)

  • VFD: I have no facts to offer on relative quality of various models, but two noteworthy points:

    • many people here have a Huanyang VFD, so we would be able to support you more easily. I hear several people here have a BEST VFD too.
    • one thing to be aware is that the fan on the Huanyang VFD is loud-ish (to the point where it gets annoying, and ruins the pleasure of having a near silent spindle :slight_smile: )
  • spindle:

    • many of us like/bought the “G-penny” brand but I don’t think you can really go wrong if your main intent is to move to a quiet setup. The G-penny spindles have the advantage of coming with their body already connected to the Earth pin (which you need to have, to avoid EMI issues later)
    • check the specific runout when comparing spindles
  • spindle mount: the ones that come in the kits are c**p, and usually don’t have mounting holes drilled, so I would highly recommend to buy one from the C3D store (depending on your spindle diameter, 80mm or 65mm)

    • so do check that the spindle you want to buy is one of those diameters ? It will probably be.
  • Water pump: you can find multiple posts here on the forum about the most common solutions:

    • cheap submersible pump (comes in the kits, usually): good enough to start, and good enough for some of us as a long term solution
    • closed-loop PC-style watercooling circuit (better, more expensive)
    • fancy chiller e.g. CW-3000 (expensive)

I have no idea whether a good local reseller exists in the UK for this type of gear.

Cheers,
Julien

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Hi Julien… Thank you for your help…its good to get some help and I appreciate it… I will take your references on board and research like mad

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