One of the biggest complaints newbies have with CNC machines powered by the dewalt palm routers is the brushes wear out and need to be replaced. When one is using the router by hand the motor starts not running smoothly and an experienced wood worker can hear the brushes are about done. However, when left on a cnc it is harder to tell. Newbies often put the speed at fastest and this makes the brushes wear out faster.
I also noticed the speeds for the battery powered dewalt are a bit fast?
DIAL RPM
1… 16000 rpm
2… 17500
3 …19100
4 …20700
5 …22300
6 …23900
7 …25500
Also got the issue that the control board fits on top of the router (is physically attached) so can’t just be easily removed to do a battery swap. There is also some reasoning that the rotor fan provides some cooling to the control board which wouldn’t occur with the battery or adapter in the way.
Does anyone have the dimension specs of the DeWalt router? I am wanting to put a VFD spindle on mine and I cannot find any specs of the router to see if I can find a compatible sized spindle or make what size shim or other item I can make it fit and center it for when I receive the kit.
I wouldnt’ waste your time searching for a 69mm VFD spindle. Pretty sure none of the exsist that are that small and better than the dewalt router. Remever this is a beginning machine. The expensive high quality VFD will physically not fit and the cheap VFD’s don’t offer any benefits at such slow speeds IMHO.
unless you are using large diameter bits, motor power is unlikely to be the
limiting factor, you are more likely to run into the belt motors not being
powerful enough than the spindle motor not being powerful enough
the reason to go with something different is more noise/vibration/runout than
power.
the fact that a 500w spindle works is not my point. I’m saying economically they typically cost about the same aor more and they provide no real world benefit given how slow maslow cnc’s are run.
It cost me around 90$ so it is comparable to other routers. The reason I went this route was that it had a better speed range than the current routers on the market. It allowed me to better control my chip size and increase bit life. The slower feeds of the maslow classic require slower speeds for optimal bit life and chip size. It is also alot quieter than a router and has the option for speed control to be set via gcode (maslow firmware currently does not support). The new Kolbalt gas lower speeds than other routers. That would probably be my first pick for the M4.