Routing Spindle Cables and Water tubing

How have you guys routed the power cables for your spindle? Do you all route it inside or attached to your drag chain or have you suspended it somehow? I’m looking for new ideas on the Power Cable, water tubing and drag chains.

I would recommend looking at bigger drag chains. I think 15x40 ID were where I landed.

What extrusions would you recommend to support that size chain?

Did you end up going with the 800 watt from Huanyang?

The 800W G-Penny with a 1.5KW HY VFD. It came a few days ago. I’m working on the redesign on the machine to accommodate it and the laser being added.

I didn’t change the extrusions just left one half supported the other half not.

I, and likely many others would be really interested in how that spindle works for you. It seems like a natural for even stock Shapeokos. Can you monitor spindle current on the VFD? Did you get the 110 or 220 Volt versions? Do you have HDZ?

Keeping the spindle power cable away from and at right angles to other cabling would minimize EMI - but that apparently hasn’t been a problem for others.

Can’t speak to the 800, but i picked up the 65mm 1.5kw 110v MySweety spindle and just wired it up for its first test spin today. Beautiful and super quiet.
being the 65mm version, it may also be a good choice for the stock carriage. I’m hooking it up to my HDZ using the stock spindle mount, and excited to see how it sits on the machine.
I picked up the 65mm mount, just in case I don’t like the stock mount.

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It’s a standard Hy… VFD so I presume so.

220 Volt

Yes - bought it directly from Luke just before he joined C3D

I’m going to spend the $95 and buy the double insulated VFD cable from the guy on eBay. I could build it myself but I have other things I want to spend my time on.

If you think a lot of people would be interested in this project; would you rather I post it as a ‘build a long blog’ or just post pictures of the project when I get done?

I for one would be quite interested to hear whether the current (Amps) display mode on your VFD does reflect the variation of power draw of the spindle while cutting. My doesn’t, and it was a bummer, as I really wanted to explore the “optimize based on cutting power” approach that @gmack preaches (for a good reason)

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I have a current probe for my Fluke meter that should be able to measure it

Great, let us know if you figure out the relationship between what’s displayed in Amp mode on the VFD, and what you read on the Fluke. On my VFD, the displayed current is initially around 2 amps, then drops to about 1.5A after warmup, and stays no matter if I am cutting air or 6061…so it’s bogus (or at least, not measuring what I think it should be measuring). I could be a defect with my VFD though.

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I wouldn’t count on that even if the frequency response of your current probe and meter extend to the PWM (“carrier”) frequency of the VFD and your meter measures “True RMS” to that frequency (because it may not support the duty cycle of the current waveform.) Assuming your current probe’s frequency response is adequate, you should check that with an oscilloscope if you have one. It’s easier to measure true input power to the VFD and compensate for spindle efficiency from its manufacturer input power and output power claims.

Apparently you’re not the only one with that problem.

FWIW, my personal experience.

My power cable for my 220v 2.2 kw spindle is routed thru my dragchain next to all my other cables, water and air lines. Zero disconnects, so far, a couple of months.

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