VFD Spindle on Shapeoko 4 XL

[raytristani (Ramon Tristani)]

I just wanted to say: “OMG I love the spindle. I finally received it today and installed it right away. This is a night and day game changer”

That’s all

[MarshDog (Chris M)]

Did you get the Shapeoko brand one?

[raytristani (Ramon Tristani)]

I sure did! It is fantastic. I am carving a grid on my spoilboard as I type and that thing runs like butter

[MarshDog (Chris M)]

Nice. I’m debating between $300 and change and putting together a kit from parts myself, or just paying the tax and getting their brand

[gdon_2003 (Guy Donham)]

Many people have rolled their on the spindle. There are lots of instructions on the forum about various ones. The difference may be your expertise at setting up the 3rd party spindle. There are lots of parameters to set up on a DIY spindle. The C3D one is locked and just seems to work for people. At twice the price of a DIY version it might be worth it if you are not an expert at setting up a VFD. I guess the only down side to the C3D one besides price is you cannot tinker with it.

I have a Jet 16-42 lathe with a Delta VFD. Those are locked but the password is out on the internet if you can find it. However changing parameters that you dont know what you are doing can lead to the VFD failure.

Additionally I saw this video the other night from a man in the UK about his warm up routine for his spindle.

CNC Spindle Killer

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

For warming up a spindle see:

Carbide 3D Spindle Maintenance

Is there any expected spindle maintenance with the Carbide 3D spindles. I’ve noticed as of late my Carbide 3D Spindle on occasion has started making a higher pitch squeaky sound above the normal humming sounds that increases as RPM increases, almost like if a bearing needs to be greased, it’s not consistent though as it comes and goes. This is my first spindle and was wondering if one needs to do any maintenance on these like bearing replacements/clean and grease, etc… Did about 8 hours strai…