CNC Shark Forum

tonydude wrote:Richard,

More info on your spindle. Where did you get it?

Tony

Do I see a vote for a section on "spindles"!

Bobby

haven't ordered yet but I've done a TON of research!

Ebay vendor (solar.jean) has a 65mm (diameter), 1.5kw (2hp) water cooled spindle INCLUDING the VFD Inverter (the device that controls the DC brushless motor) for $265 plus $50 S&H... (I am not recommending this vendor as I have no experience but he has replied several times to questions I have sent rather quickly and his Ebay Rating seems pretty high...

My biggest concern has been added weight of the router... I don't know what the Porter Cable router motor supplied with the Mako weighs... (Anyone want to help out here? Buehler? Buhler? Buhler? Lol!)

I read somwhere that the Mako and HDPro can take up to 12 lbs of router?

The 1.5kw (65mm... Diameter) water cooled spindle weighs 7.7 lbs.... They also make an 80mm 1.5kw spindle motoer that weighs closer to 10lbs... I am not sure what other differences there are between them... both rated at the same horsepower, one has a larger diameter (more cooling area?)

There are also aluminum mounts for both sizes (I plan to purchase two (over kill) and machine them both down to two clamping nuts. I am hoping to replace the Mako plastic router plate with aluminum (I design and build toy prototypes and have a complete machine shop with the exception of CNC... Hence, the Mako purchase.

There is also another company that sells the water cooling system (pump, radiator with fan etc, for under $100 or so?) their website is: www.ugracnc.com On their website is a how-to showing how simple it is to set up the cooling system... I've heard of people adding anti alge drops as well as switching over to automobile engine coolants (not sure which kind to use and would love to learn from anyone already traveling down this path.)

My reasoning for choosing a water cooled unit is running long programs and having the motor run for hours... this eliminates the overheating of an aircooled router AND the water cooled spindles are WAY quieter....

Some of what I've learned so far has been by watching videos on YouTube...

I hope this helps?

Best,
Richard
PS: here's my website if you're interested in seeing some of what I do... Been a LONG time since I updated and there are hundreds of toys that have been or are out on the market now that I've designed, engineered and produced proof of concept and final production version prototypes... (please understand... I have been swamped with work for two years now and the best I could offer are photos, drawings etc.... to help anyone wanting to follow my path... (Also planning or re-enforcing the Mako even further to take care of accuracey issues... learned a LOT about those solutions here on this website... (Thank you to those that provided advice, photos and build threads for their modifications)... I don't mind purchasing a machine like this and modifying/tuning up to get the quality I am looking for... the selling price is truly amazing!

The router weighs 9lbs

Tony

mike 64 wrote:Got my Mako to day. Itis more hd then i thought.i am so happy with it.

Hi Mike, I ordered mine Nov 27th and hope to have it before Christmas. You sound excited thus far. Do you have an update on your progress. I am new to CNC and will have a steep learning curve ahead but I am looking forward to the adventure. Regards, Ed

Ed,

Start learning the v carve pro program from www.vectric.com download the demo and watch all the tutorials.

Tony

Tony,

Thanks for the router weight info... at 7.7 pounds I should be way fine!

Richard

tonydude wrote:Ed,

Start learning the v carve pro program from http://www.vectric.com download the demo and watch all the tutorials.

Tony

Hi Tony, Thank you for the reply and the advice. I have been playing with V-Carve for several weeks and it helped me to select the Mako Shark HD. The software is really impressive. I have also been playing with Cut3D. I have found some vector files on the internet that load and probably allow me to scale and duplicate them. I haven't been able to modify these files but maybe this is beyond the capabilities of this simple software. I am also looking at Aspire and BobCad-CAM but I am not ready to spend that kind of money on SW until I have fulling learned V-Carve and the rest of the free and less expensive SW packages.

Have you tried any of these?

I have also ordered the probe and just finished building a "Shark Tank" that will help to control the dust. I am excited about getting going on some projects just for fun. I can see a ton of wonderful things to do that have never been possible before the availability of these machines.

Best regards,
Ed

Ed,

I have aspire, still learning. Forget bobcad, tried it couple years ago didn't like it. Plus they keep calling for you to upgrade being very pushy. The vectric programs have alot of support. Check out http://www.vectric.com/forum/ also lot of free 3d files online.

Tony

tonydude wrote:Ed,

I have aspire, still learning. Forget bobcad, tried it couple years ago didn't like it. Plus they keep calling for you to upgrade being very pushy. The vectric programs have alot of support. Check out http://www.vectric.com/forum/ also lot of free 3d files online.

Tony

Hi Tony,

Thank you for your recommendations. I see that Aspire costs an additional $1500 for the upgrade. I will probably buy it after I learn a little more about cnc operation.

Do you have the probe? I purchased it along with the Mako Shark HD. I expect that they will arrive together but I don't know for sure. I have read several postings that indicate that the probe may have issues during a break-in process. I don't see any specifics about this that would indicate what may require such break-in.

Regards,
Ed

The breakin is just running it for a couple of hours and know that it might have errors for that run.
After that is should be fine.