Hey Adam,
had a quick look at your video (did not watch in its entirety, just jumped chapters).
At this moment in the video, you say that the PwnCNC 2.2 kW spindle has 3 hp power while the Makita hand trim router has 1.25 hp power, so the spindle would have more than twice the power.
But by saying this you make the Makita much better than it really is. This is because you can’t compare the horsepowers with which the Makita trim router is sold, with the horsepowers of a spindle, because on the Makita, what they give you is the electric power consumption, and not the mechanical power delivery at the end of the shaft. The available mechanical power is always much less than the drawn electric power, but the power rating with which they sell you the Makita, is the drawn electric power. They sell you a hand trim router with rated 230 V * 3.1 A = 713 W (≈1 hp) (International version) or 110 V * 6.5 A = 715 W (US version) (≈1 hp) respectively, but this is what it will draw, not what it will deliver.
(Conversion: 1 electric hp in the USA = 746 electric W).
By the way how they come to “1¼ hp” is a mystery.
For spindles, that are no power hand tools like the Makita hand trim router, but a motor, which is made to be a component of a machine, they have to comply to IEC 60034-1, which says, the mandatory power rating on the nameplate has to tell the mechanical power available at the shaft, not the electrical power draw. Otherwise engineers would not be able to compare motors, because motors have different efficiency. What you want to compare is the mechanical power they can deliver. That is a very different physical quantity than the electric power, and you want to know what a motor delivers to be able to size it for the application. Some motors deliver more mechanical power with the same electric power drawn as other motors. A good example is a 65 mm spindle and a 80 mm spindle. With the same Volt and Ampère ratings, the efficiency of the 80 mm spindle is higher, and so is the mechanical power delivered at the end of its shaft.
In this example, I show that a spindle that delivers 2.2 kW mechanical power at its shaft, and that is rated with 230 V and 8 A, draws 2.6 kVA so-called real electric power, and draws approx 3.2 kVA so-called apparent electric power, which is the power that really flows, with one part flowing back so you don’t pay for it but this is the value you need to size your spindle cable’s wire gauge and connector Ampère rating, because it really flows.
VFDs take this into account. If you buy a “2.2 kW” VFD, this means it is “made for a spindle that can deliver 2.2 kW mechanical power at its shaft”. That is why such a VFD is able to provide 3.8–4.5 kW electrical power, or up to 11 A per phase in constant torque mode and S1 duty mode. A spindle with good efficiency will deliver 2.2 kW mechanical power by drawing 8 A, but one with poor efficiency may need to draw 11 A to deliver the same 2.2 kW mechanical power.
The Omron MX2 2.2 kW VFD (identical to Hitachi WJ200 2.2 kW) VFD output capacity ratings:
@200 V × 11 A × √3 = 3.8105 kW
@220 V × 11 A × √3 = 4.1916 kW
@240 V × 11 A × √3 = 4.5726 W
– Source: Omron MX2 datasheet
So you can safely assume that your 2.2 kW (3 hp) spindle has not twice the mechanical power than a Makita hand trim router, but at least three times more, probably four times more, because a Makita hand trim router is not only sold without any mechanical power rating at all, but it is also no brushless induction motor like a spindle, with its excellent efficiency, but a universal motor with carbon brush commutators. Such a motor has a much worse efficiency than a spindle. Furthermore, the hand trim router will have its maximum efficiency and maximum torque only at one specific speed, while a spindle on a VFD can deliver constant torque over a wide speed range (typically 6 000–24 000 rpm) (see also hand trim router / spindle comparison).