FoxAlien VASTO + 1.5KW Spindle - Aluminum Cutting
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- Did some quick runs with a 3 flute endmill, to try and establish a baseline / limit of the tool. As a whole, The tool did a great job. The stepper motors arent pushed at all ( very luke warm to the touch after all of this ). Only real hiccup was metal chips causing the Z-Limit switch to false trigger and shutdown the machine completely. Other than that, I feel this is a very rigid machine and aluminum cutting is very easy with this machine. Just make sure the table you plant it on, is very rigid as well. Clearly, mine is not. Certain fast motions can make my table move 1-2 inches left to right. This machine weighs over 100 pounds fully assembled.
The 1.5KW spindle feels like a good amount. Although I did have a tool get stuck due to aluminum fusing to the flute, the spindle did "skip" and loose its rotation sequence. This isnt a BAD thing, as it saved the tool VS just brute forcing it. It doesnt mean the spindle doesnt have enough current. High speeds/frequencies if I'm not mistaken, can potentially provide less torque, so despite it was telling the motor to spin, it lost all that inertia and just couldn't move.
Either way, I'm happy with the results and I feel more confident with how I'll use these cutters.
Yea. I think that did pretty good.
Thanks for the real world demonstration video. I'm curious if the stepper motors have a model number on them? I've read that the lower the inductance, the better, but I'm a noob at this.
So with a higher power single we could use a 1/4 inch bit? Does the bit grind? I have the FoxAlien vasto with the stock spindle (800W). With this setup the 1/8 inch bit has to be run at a slow feed rate, a higher feed rate makes it hard on the bit. Even though I am using air and coolant mister…
So, I was able to use a Dewalt router ( I think those are 700W? ) origionally. I used 1/4" collet on the router and was able to use 1/4" tooling without problems. I use to do all my aluminum cuts with the dewalt router. The issue I had wasn't the power. I was able to do ( sorta ) similar cuts like this video. But, The RPMs dropped once it starts cutting, then the speed-controller would over-correct, shoot the RPMs way up, and correct it stable. By time it got stable, the cut was already done. This spirratic RPM made for messy chatter cuts. If your 800W spindle is brushed, with just DC power going to it, it wont be as durable/powerful at holding RPMs like a dewalt/makita/VFD spindle. Those 3 are brushless and use a driver to keep the RPM constant, by dynamically changing the current as the spindle is loaded. With the 1.5KW spindle, the limitation is usually the tool breaking. I never stalled the spindle and never had steppers skip yet. But to be fair, I havent really broken any tooling yet. I recently got a 3-FL 1/8" cutter and I ran that around 1000mm/min with a 0.2 stepover at 14mm DOC ( side-wall cutting ) without issues. Its a super rigid machine. All my parts made so far look almost as flawless as parts made with a HAAS VF1 at work. I just gotta take the cuts slower, vs the industrial machines haha
@@PhxSt0rmz thanks for the really useful points. The spindle is a brushed one with DC power. I do have a plan to upgrade to a 1.5kw spindle with VFD.
so is the 1.5 the correct size for the machine? 80mm 2.2 are still in a good price range other then needing to find a clamp. just ordered the vasto today, so am searching for info. thanks for upping the content.
If you can find a clamp and have the ability to machine a mount plate, I've seen at least 1 person manage to put the 80mm 2.2KW on their Vasto. I'm running the 1.5KW simply because I didn't want to make an adaptor, its 65mm diameter and worked with the clamp that came with the machine. I feel for anything I do on this machine, The spindle power isnt the limit. I dont see myself needing the ability to run over 1/4" tooling, so the 2.2KW didn't look too appealing.
@@PhxSt0rmzI mean it seems like the limiting factor here isn't the rigidity of the machine, it's the power of the spindle, which is wild
@Lucas_sGarage Since this video, I have 4.2A steppers on mine now. Which is almost double the amperage of the stock ones. But yeah, often the limit is the tool itself breaking or the spindle. I never took a hard enough bite to put too much load on the spindle. Im not doing mass production, so a 14mm DOC with .5 stepover is plenty fast enough for me. Even tho i know i could get away with 0.8, and probably more. But when im in no rush, why bother ripping a tool hard when I could do lighter cuts and use a little more time, and *potentially* get more tool life.
I basically utilize it to its potential but i do push anything. Im for sure using it far more than any belt-driven machine I've had. Thats what counts haha. Did some full depth cutting in my most recent video, when i just wanted quick and dirty radius cuts.
@@PhxSt0rmz awesome, I will definitely check it out, I'm personally making a printnc V3 to cut steel and aluminum
Did you gain any “z “ height by going with the 1.5kw spindle? Or is it still the same as what fox alien says 3.7in?
Z-Height is limited by the distance between the cutting surface ( table ) and the bottom of the Z assembly. This distance on mine is 3.75 inches. Regaurdless of the fact my spindle can travel more than that, If the part cannot slide under the gantry, there's no ability to machine it of course. So its limited by the gantry height, not so much the spindle. That distance is 3.75 inches on mine, Given my bed sits 12mm lower than a stock vasto..as its heavily modified and reinforced. So stock vasto may actually be more like 3.3 inches
How did you lower the bed ? It looks like you still have the hybrid table that the vasco comes with? Did you have a pic of the bed modification? Thanks
Is this stock machine apart from spindle?
The only mods from stock are the 1.5KW VFD spindle ( highly recommend, makes for a whole new machine vs a dewalt router ) and I did reinforce the table by adding a lot of 2020 extrusions under it, just to keep the boards from flexing. This isnt NEEDED as most people slap a large spoilerboard ontop and screw it down, which has a similar effect of reinforcing. But, I come from 10 years of CNC machining in the industry..rigidity is everything..so, I just did it to be extra sure haha.
Its a good machine for the price in my opinion. I can absolutely rip HDPE plastic at 20mm depth of cut at 1500mm/m speeds pretty easily and even if i do get a chatter surface, nothing a finish pass doesnt fix ( 0.2mm stepover )
Have cut one steel part. Needed to turn a small block of steel into a T nut for a vintage lathe. I took my time though doing like 0.2mm stepdown passes, but the results looked made-to-be and perfect especially after a quick pass through a steelwool buffing wheel.
@@PhxSt0rmz thanks 🙏
Why is a VFD spindle better than say a makita router? Honest question, im new into cnc.
@@AritonovicDusan cause usually vfd spindles with proper controllers can be controlled down to rpm not just by selecting from 6 speeds and in most cases ppl buy 1.5kw and up spindles so they are more powerful. For example a makita router is around 710-800w i think. Hope this clears it up! :D
What rpm were you running?
This was full tilt, which i believe is 24,000 or 20,000rpm. I seem to have best results just running the spindle at its full speed, as I think it has the most power/torque at full speed. Even with the 3 flutes, the cuts sound pretty normal and really no signs of rubbing. The aluminum parts when put onto a 0000 steel wool buffing wheel, to make them matte, literally look like they're professional fabricated flawless parts..like the same quality that im getting off the machines at work ( HAAS VF4 / Kitamuras )
Thank you for replying I just changed out my fox alien wm-3020 300w spindle for a 1500w.
Just trying to get an idea of where I should start.
Max I could do and not have chatter with the 300w was. .080 depth of cut. .015 step over at 48ipm.