1.5 kW 80mm ER16 Air Cooled Spindle on 110 VAC

I’m relatively new to this forum and expecting my X-50 Journeyman to arrive in early June. After the wealth of info I’ve read on this forum :pray:, I’ve come to the conclusion that I (like many others) would like to upgrade my machine with a 1.5kW Air Cooled Spindle. I would love to have 2.2 kW for the collet sizes, but my available power in our detached garage is a limitation. I only have a subpanel with 2x 15A breakers @ 110 VAC and would like to maintain some overhead. Based on what I’ve read here, 1.5kW is the best I can (safely) run in there.

I’ve also read that there are some interference issues with the z-axis stepper when using a 65mm spindle in the standard mount that ships with the 1F (depending on spindle length), but that this is solved with the 80mm spindle mount.

So, I am looking for someone on the forum that has successfully integrated a 1.5kW 80mm ER16 Air Cooled Spindle with a 110 VAC input VFD. If you’re out there, will you please share links to the spindle and VFD you used and any input on your experience? So far, I have seen this, which looks like a decent offering, but I see some trouble with the integration here.

I may also be getting cables made by CorvetteGuy to save some time on that front, but have not pinged him yet on the request. I’d like to sort out the spindle purchase first.

Thanks!

Here are a few spindle options I’m considering:

  1. PwnCNC shared by @Echd. This is an expensive kit, but I like that it’s plug-and-play. Anyone running this? Seems pretty awesome to have an ER20 collet with a 110V input. Although stalling the spindle is a concern, I think it’s workable based on previous experience.

  2. Bulkman3D Kit originally shared by @RyTyson (I think) but it’s 65mm, so z-stepper clearance is a known issue. I’m also concerned about the cable quality and gauge that comes with the kit.

If anyone has experience with these, please let me know. I’m struggling to piece together the right combination of 110V input VFD and 1.5kW spindle in 80mm diameter without this expensive PwnCNC kit. Thanks!

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Looking at the same Pwncnc 1.5kwe 82mm air. Just ordered my X50 Journeyman on April19.

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The PwnCNC 80 seems very tempting.

It is late (for me) and I haven’t read the whole thing. Does he mention runout specs?

@PwnCNC can you comment on spindle runout for you offerings? I’m specifically interested in the 1.5kW 80mm ER20.

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Hello guys, they’re basically GPenny branded motors which have a runout of <.01mm according to the manufacturer. I’ve pulled together lots of great features in a kit that exceeds anything you’ll find on Amazon. Braided and soldered high quality cables that are flexible enough for cable chains as well as properly shielded/drained. The PWM/Modbus cable is also properly shield/drained and has high quality/unique connectors to ensure a solid connection.
The VFD is one step up from what Carbide3d and Inventables sells with their spindles. They each sell Delixi EM60 VFD’s whereas mine are EM61 (main difference is mine has modbus capabilities so you can plug them directly into the Onefinity controller and have two-way communications with the vfd rather than one-way that PWM gives you, although our model can do either option).
I’ve worked closely with Doug at BuildBotics to get the proper programming added to the controller software which will eventually be pulled into the Onefinity branch and provide an “EM60” option in the Tools dropdown list within the controller.
The VFD comes pre-programmed with quite features (fan runs only when needed), as well as breaking resistor capable, etc.
I have poured my knowledge into an easy to follow spindle kit manual found at (PwnCNC Docs) and regularly publish videos (Spindles - YouTube) on things I’ve learned and sharing about the kits including outlining basic operations and feature additions.
I’m having fun with these kits and try to keep them in-stock as much as possible. I have tons of 1.5kw 65mm kits available to ship every Tuesday/Friday. As of today, two dozen 2.2kw 220v and two dozen 1.5kw 110v ER20’s should be arriving any week.
Oh… final note… Saw Dust Nation is giving away one of our spindle kits on their 100th episode followed by our huge “Yellow Friday” sale May 25-27 (huge savings up to 20% off) . (black and yellow being our company colors).

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Great info! Thanks Daniel!!

@PwnCNC i think there’s an issue with your docs url. I’ve tried chrome and safari and get this 404 error from both. I can try Microsoft Edge tomorrow …

I custom programmed that website and it seems, for mobile browsers, there’s a loading problem as of a month ago. I’m still tracking down the problem. For now, access it via desktop browser and it works fine.

Hey Daniel,

same “Error 404: Path not found” on Vivaldi Desktop Browser (chromium-based) on your whole docs.pwncnc.com site! Something seems programmed bad when it tries to load the content below the page top.

Hey Daniel,

docs site works again now! :keyboard: :clap:

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Hey Daniel,

still some pics seem missing:

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Working on it this morning actually :wink:
I got in a CW3000 chiller and hoping to get a video and some instructions put together for using it… as well as a breaking resistor i also got in recently.

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Sounds great! Need to save up a little cash though. :grinning:

I finally made the leap and ordered my @PwnCNC spindle kit. 1.5kW 80mm ER20 air-cooled and fully plug and play (mentioned above). Super excited and will report back how it goes once everything arrives in June! Key features for me were:

  • 110V Power input, only needs a 15Amp breaker (dedicated)
  • ER20 collets, up to 1/2” bits
  • 80 mm diameter to avoid z stepper interference seen by some users on the 65mm spindles
  • plug and play
  • air cooled
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Can you let us know about your PwnCNC experiece? How did it work out for you? 110V and air-cooled enough power and cooling?

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I’ve really enjoyed it! Setup was a breeze, the cables have nice workmanship, and air cooling has been plenty for my purposes. I haven’t ran any overly lengthy programs, but no cooling issues for me thus far. I did have to enter the modbus parameters a couple times to get the settings to take in the controller, but it sounds like the new Masso controller will have a more plug and play experience. I believe the new firmware may also have a @PwnCNC selection in the common VFDs drop down, which would also be nice for set-up. At least that’s what Daniel was saying when I bought my kit (?). That said, I’ve been weary of updating firmware given some of the reported issues with the new build(s).
I do think this is a good partnership between PwnCNC and Onefinity. Honestly, the cables are very nice to simply purchase pre-fabricated.
The only thing I’m a little bothered by is the 80mm spindle mount. To utilize the full z clearance under the x-rail, my mount is grabbing the bottom of the spindle body. The spindle is not very well supported in this configuration and there seems to be a slight resonance around 12-14K rpm for my vertical cantilever beam mounting scheme.

My current plan is to slide the spindle down in the 80mm mount and just accept the reduced z clearance since those are nice spindle speeds to run at given the machine feed rates and target chip loads. I’m pretty sure this is less of an issue with the new Z20 / Elite series machines which have more z travel.
I’ve done some decently aggressive cutting with this and it’s done well. One of my main desires was for the larger 1/2” collet compatibility so that I could use insert cutters with large radius ball nose profiles, but will have to report back on that since I haven’t made the leap on the purchase for those yet.
Overall I’m pleased with the kit. If you’re serious about running your spindle a lot, you might consider the water cooled spindle kit they offer. Just wasn’t worth the hassle for my situation. Cheers!

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This is the exact setup I’m looking at. How has it been performing for you?

Hey @SemperFi77USMC,
I really like it! However, you may want to check out this thread with some info about VFDs and spindles. Essentially, you could run a 2.2kW spindle using a 1.5kW VFD to get the big collet sizes and save some dough. Totally depends on your budget and confidence with making cable assemblies. I’m wondering if this is what PwnCNC is doing already. Maybe?
That said, I went with the kit for convenience. I have 2 young kids and was able to get the spindle installed in and evening after bedtime very easily. Didn’t take long at all. The workmanship is good and I wrote some thoughts on the set-up earlier in this thread here. I recommend it for sure. I don’t have a ton of hours on it to be honest but it’s been great for the times I’ve ran it.

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