I have been pondering installing a spindle on my Onefinity. I don't really need it as my makita trim routers work fine, but I still want one. You know how it is.

I've heard that VFDs can be a pain to set up. I see the pre-setup units going for about 4 to 5 times what the kits themselves go for though and that just seems ludicrous. To buy a plug and play kit from PwnCNC for example it would be about $1150 to get it with all the bells and whistles (1.5kw 110v watercooled vfd and spindle). I considered buying it- heavily considered it- but I can't help but feel that price is assrape territory. The damn things only have like 4 wires, how hard can it be?

(I do have basic knowledge of safety and can read most wiring diagrams)

I was browsing amazon for cheap bits and other parts when I found an open box 110v 1500w huanyang sold by the huanyang store, so I'm relatively assured of quality (I gather huanyang to be one of the better chinese makers). This setup only has the vfd, spindle, and water pump. But, it also only cost me $199, so I'm saving about a grand over the setup I wanted. That pays for a lot of connectors and cables. And yes, it is a 110v spindle. I'll be running it off a 30A dedicated outlet so I should still be able to run everything including dust collection on it. I'm debating buying one of those tiny dust collectors like this but maybe a small shop vac will be better. I'll be honest I haven't set my table up quite like I like yet so I often go without dust collection and just clean up larger jobs by hand with a shop vac throughout the job.

Any pitfalls or tricks to setup? It looks like so long as I use good shielded cables and follow the directions wiring a spindle is pretty easy. The actual programming looks dead simple for my controller.

Can't think of any big issues setting up a spindle like that. As you say, it ain't rocket science.

Regarding DC, I use one that's also around 600 cfm, wall mounted. Has about a 12' flex run of 4" hose on it, has no issues with suction and is absent of the high pitch scream of the shop vac.



Only real issue I have with it is they stopped making the plastic collection bags, so I had to find a substitute. Oh, and Grizzly customer service must use re-hires that were terminated for poor performance from Century Arms. The level of stupidity is fascinating.

I use a plain shopvac with this variable speed thing attached. Helps dampen the noise quite a bit, the shop vac is much louder than my machine in its enclosure. I've been contemplating the carbide3d spindle but I'm not sure it will benefit me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015SLCJ2W

For my shapeoko I have found that a shop vac works best for me. More suction power to suck the sawdust from the grooves. But choosing the correct dust boot does a lot.


Setting up a spindle is not difficult. I would suggest buying a 4 bearing vfd and spindle combo with an hy vfd. Buy it off Amazon. Make sure it’s fulfilled by Amazon and ships from Amazon then purchase a 3rd party warranty from Amazon.  This will protect you. The vfds like to let the smoke out if you get a bad one.

I use a cw3000 for a cooling system. It’s all in one radiator, pump, tank, temp sensor. Just simplifies everything.

The mounts that come in the kits are trash. Buy a quality mount for your z axis to simplify.

You can buy collets for cheap online also.

You will need to purchase a shielded wire cable and know how to solder to complete the install.

My spindle and vfd came in today. Looks nice. Despite being sold as open box, it doesn't appear it was ever opened. My guess is someone meant to buy a 220 or something and bought this on accident and returned it. Btdt

With my savings over buying a pre fab setup I bought a 9l chiller (reciruclator and radiator really but its not like a spindle like this needs liquid nitrogen), 20 foot of shielded 16/4, a pwm/modbus cable (overpaid for this from pwncnc just because I don't know anything about it). I already have an 80mm spindle mount for my onefinity.

I also bought some 80mm circular LED lights I'm going to mount on the bottom of the spindle to illuminate the workpiece. $10 off scamazon, I'll extend the wiring and fab up some 3d printed holder for them.

Total price all in is $465 for everything which all things considered does not seem bad. I didn't really need the chiller but I'd rather have a nice tidy solution instead of a 5 gallon bucket. Its overkill for what I do, but now I don't have to wonder about how much better a spindle setup would be than a router.

I'm super busy at present so hopefully in early August and I can get it wired up. I have major plans to enclose my cnc as well and hide away the parts inside of the table its built into.