Hi everyone,
The dewalt on my so3 has started making a very loud screeching noise when under load, even light loads (1mm doc, 1500mm/min). I suspect I may have been pushing it too hard before (3mm doc, 1500mm/min consistently in hard oak) and the bearings have gone… Any other thoughts about what the issue could be?
Have you replaced the brushes?
Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X1LF708?ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00&redirect=true&psc=1&pldnSite=1
Heres a link to a discussion on the Shapeoko wiki:
http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6057
Hi Apollo,
I checked the brushes and they are still about 12mm long so should still have life in them, they are nicely shaped with no chips so I don’t suspect this to be the issue.
Because I tend to use long cutters to get through the inch thick panels I machine I think this moment about the bottom bearing may have taken its toll!
Screeching is normally bearings,you could pull them and repack with grease but i am guessing they have bit the bullet.
I can heartily recommend the Chinese spindles,very quiet,better speed control and with much less runout than those routers.
This is my plan A followed by replacing them!
I was also thinking about one of those spindles, it sounded so quiet in the video you made cutting aluminium!
My SO3 is louder than the spindle and the airpump is louder than the pair of them!
Easily the best purchase I have made for it so far,I can sit in the workshop and have a conversation without raising my voice.
The secret for cutting metal quietly is simple,small cutters and reasonable feed rates. I rarely use anything over 3mm,I do occasionally use a 6mm for roughing and a 6mm chamfer tool but they dont cut as nice nor as quiet as my 3mm 2 flutes.
Damn I’m jealous, can you post a link to the one you got here? I’ve heard there are a lot of crappy one out there!
UPDATE:
I checked the brushes after finding that squirting some grease into the bearings had little to no effect, there were a few chips on the edges and so I replaced both of them.
It is still screeching but still only under load, it is perfectly normal when just idling. I’m quite confused…
I’m thinking it could be caused by the after market 6mm collet I’m using. It may have worn a bit and so is not holding the bits perfectly central. Unfortunately I don’t have an indicator to check the runout…
I’ll have to save up for a 1.5kw spindle!