In the past year, I have burnt up 4 trim routers. 2 makitas, 1 Openbuilds Rout ER11, and one Carbide ER11. I generally only work with hardwoods and the deepest depth of cut I run is .125 with a max feed of 120 (1/4in downcut.)
I placed an order for the Redline 80mm 1.5kw Dec 15th and was hoping to have a rough estimate on how long I can expect it to last and if it will last longer than 3 months. I am generally carving 4ish days a week for 9+ hours each day.
I run a 1.5kw Hung Yang water cooled in a production environment
Profile cutting Oak boards using either 1/8 or 1/4 spiral end mills.
I would guess its got around 2000 hours use and it still gives me no issues.
I am fairly hard on it with speeds and feeds
I do warm it up and warm it down and regularly replace cutters.
This is what works for me I expect other will be along and cast doubt on the numbers
Run VFD and Coolant pump for 1 min
Run Spindle at 9000 rpm for 2 mins
Run Spindle at 18000 rpm for 2 mins my normal cutting speed
Use machine as required
Cool down
Run Spindle at 18000 rpm for 2 mins
Run Spindle at 9000 rpm for 2 mins
Stop Spindle and run VFD and Coolant for 1 min
Switch off all
I would suggest you check how warm your coolant is getting, Many people run an all in one coolant system with chiller, I didn’t go down I have a large tank with a mixture of high quality vehicle coolant and purified water, the pump i use is variable flow which i run at about 50% my theory being that its not running flat out the flow and return pipes are clear PVC and due to the layout are around 20 feet long which I feel helps with the cooling. I have never had concerns with temperature and the set up often does 8 hour continuous shifts.
Its a production shop and it has to earn its keep often doing profile cut runs of 700 off
I’ve had my HK 2.2kw water cooled spindle for several years now without an issue. I do nothing to warm it up. I turn on the VFD after I load the G code and then the water pump. Once I see water flow I press play. I’m sure I have close to 1000 hours on it. I can’t comment about the air cooled spindles but with water cooling and no brushes the spindle barely gets warm to the touch. A trim router was designed for occasional use. A 3 phase induction motor can run for years without issue.
i’ve used several hy spindles and had them run over 2000 hours before i replaced. ( upgraded, they are still in shop as backups now). never had spindle quit on me yet. have over 3600 hours of cut time.