Hey, is this your VFD enclosure?

Corvetteguy50 has a video on his channel: A Onefinity CNC Done Right.. - YouTube

It has a really great looking VFD enclosure, wanted to see if anyone knows anything about it. Component list, wire diagram, or just nice up close picture to figure out what’s in there. It looks like a breaker, fuse holders, contact block, EMF shield gizmo thing, HY VFD, and an inverter maybe? Not really sure what the grey box is next to the VFD.

I’ll get my OF hopefully early March so I’ve been wandering the internet doing my research.


Does not look like anything special to me, just an electrical controls cabinet which you can probably find on Amazon or a local electrical supply.

Bud Industries is one US manufacturer that has been around a long time and makes quality products. Hoffman is another source. There are many others, but this should get you started and you can expand your search from there.

You might also search places like CraigsList for used cabinets. You’d be surprised what is out there for much less than new but is in almost new condition. You might end up stripping out some old components you don’t need. but you may gain some items like DIN rails and save yourself some money.

Vendors like DigiKey, Newark Electronics, and McMaster-Carr will have what you need to name just three. Their prices are not always the least expensive, but they usually have items in stock.

Almost all this stuff will be available on Amazon, but sometimes the quality is questionable so beware and read the reviews.

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Hey Tim,

you can buy an empty control cabinet and equip it yourself, where at least you would put into it: A MCCB on a DIN Rail, the VFD for your spindle, a EMI Filter suiting your VFD, a DIN-rail compatible Thermostat for your cabinet’s Fan, a DIN-rail-compatible power supply for your ISO 13849 Safety relay such as a Omron G9SE (datasheet) and also for powering other relays (e.g. for automatically switching dust extraction on and off), an Emergency Stop Switch wired to the safety relay, a power-on and a reset switch, and finally if you want it to look that nice as shown below, a lot of terminal blocks and cable ducts (with cable duct cutter)

Image 1: Here you can see the contents of a control cabinet with both VFD and CNC controller (and much more), wth the recommended cable ducts, DIN Rails and terminal blocks.

Image 2: Shown is the mounting plate of control cabinet with electrical components mounted on it and surrounded by cable ducts. Note that this shows the mounting plate of a CNC Controller control cabinet and not a VFD control cabinet, but the principle is the same. It is also possible to combine both, but in that case the CNC Controller should have its own earthed case. Also important for preventing EMI is a shielded spindle cable.


Image: Control cabinet suitable for a VFD.

Control cabinets have a mounting plate (see image) that you can take out to assemble your components on it and put back when you’re done. The mounting plate is earthed as the entire control cabinet is in order to serve as faraday cage, preventing electromagnetic radiation typically emitted by VFDs from escaping which can cause electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Note that you should own a Crimp Tool for Wire Ferrules (e.g. the wire ferrule crimp pliers from Knipex) and one for Ring and Spade connectors (e.g. the crimp pliers from Knipex with interchangeable inserts) or at least a more simple and cheaper crimp pliers and of course enough stranded wire. The stranded wire should be made of (tinned) copper, aluminium (cheaper) is not recommended, especially on power cables. The wire gauge and the size of the ferrules and the ring and spade connectors are obtained by reading your VFD Manual.

Or, you can buy a control cabinet assembled and configured ready-to-use:

Unboxing video:

Mechatron-Schaltkasten_von_Marco_Reps
CNC Finale: Automatic Toolchanger Spindle Install & Testing – Youtube

Image: Shown is a full-blown control cabinet with VFD, circuit breaker, safety relay (red), and EMI filter on the left, and the pneumatics system for the automatic tool changer system of the ATC-8022-42-HSK25 2.2 kW 42,000 rpm water-cooled spindle on the right (and additional air tube (blue) with valve retrofit by video author which also wanted workpiece mist coolant – described in the video). On the back of the door you see the back of power switch, emergency button and reset button. Note the thick earth line that connects door to the rest of the cabinet.

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Thanks for the response. When it comes to electrical work, anything past basic household wiring and I’m really not very familiar. I can’t reasonably justify a mechatron spindle, but I have been thinking about their cabinets, a basic setup surly cant be be that many $$$. Only down side I would have to get it shipped to the US.