Let's talk about CAM

DaBit
I will be setting up my HY spindle and VFD today.
If you have any input I would love to hear it.
www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum...tions?start=20#47682

Basically you have to make sure the inverter is set up for a 220V/400Hz motor. If you set it up for a 50/60Hz motor things will go wrong. But since you are able to already run the inverter, this is already done by the manufacturer.

What the manufacturers don't do is optimize the settings, so at low RPM you probably do not get any performance at all. For this you need to modify the V/f curve. Page 28 in the inverter manual is useful; it shows some graphs and description of the parameters.

Basically you want to load the motor, and change the intermediate frequency (PD006) and intermediate voltage (PD008) so you can have the motor draw maximum current (which equals maximum torque) when loaded heavily at 2500-3000rpm. Next test at other RPMs that no strange things happen. See the first few pages of the manual on how to change the display to 'display output current'.

Usually you have to increase both the intermediate frequency and voltage a bit.

Make sure the coolant flow is OK when doing this; these motors use the absolute bare minimum of copper and will produce quite a bit of heat when loaded heavily at low RPM. No large flow is needed, but you do need an uninterrupted flow of coolant.

Also: run your spindle bearings in before you do anything else. Half an hour 5000rpm, half an hour 10000rpm, half an hour 15000rpm.

Given my experience with Chinese stuff it would even be best to disassemble the spindle, inspect everything, clean and regrease the bearings with highspeed grease, and put it back together before even attempting to run it.
I did not do this, and sooner or later I will regret that given the insufficient or missing amount of low-quality-anyway grease and high amount of dirt and debris in Chinese bearings/ball nuts/etc.

(Japanese/Germany import bearings, yeah, right.. P4 rating, yeah, right...
Two sets of those bearings costs 3 times as much as the entire spindle+VFD package. Consider 'German import' as 'we shipped a box of round things that appears to resemble a ball bearing to Germany first, and had it shipped back immediately').

Also measure runout on the spindle taper. Some of these spindles are good and do comply to the <0,005mm TIR given, some of them are really bad doing worse than 0,1mm TIR. There is no pattern; either you are lucky or you are not.
The sellers usually accept complaints about that and solve it (a little pressure may be needed but luckily they are very allergic to bad reviews on Ebay), but not if you complain two months after buying and using it.

DaBit wrote: Basically you have to make sure the inverter is set up for a 220V/400Hz motor. If you set it up for a 50/60Hz motor things will go wrong. But since you are able to already run the inverter, this is already done by the manufacturer.

What the manufacturers don't do is optimize the settings, so at low RPM you probably do not get any performance at all. For this you need to modify the V/f curve. Page 28 in the inverter manual is useful; it shows some graphs and description of the parameters.

Basically you want to load the motor, and change the intermediate frequency (PD006) and intermediate voltage (PD008) so you can have the motor draw maximum current (which equals maximum torque) when loaded heavily at 2500-3000rpm. Next test at other RPMs that no strange things happen. See the first few pages of the manual on how to change the display to 'display output current'.

Usually you have to increase both the intermediate frequency and voltage a bit.

Make sure the coolant flow is OK when doing this; these motors use the absolute bare minimum of copper and will produce quite a bit of heat when loaded heavily at low RPM. No large flow is needed, but you do need an uninterrupted flow of coolant.

Also: run your spindle bearings in before you do anything else. Half an hour 5000rpm, half an hour 10000rpm, half an hour 15000rpm.

Given my experience with Chinese stuff it would even be best to disassemble the spindle, inspect everything, clean and regrease the bearings with highspeed grease, and put it back together before even attempting to run it.
I did not do this, and sooner or later I will regret that given the insufficient or missing amount of low-quality-anyway grease and high amount of dirt and debris in Chinese bearings/ball nuts/etc.

(Japanese/Germany import bearings, yeah, right.. P4 rating, yeah, right...
Two sets of those bearings costs 3 times as much as the entire spindle+VFD package. Consider 'German import' as 'we shipped a box of round things that appears to resemble a ball bearing to Germany first, and had it shipped back immediately').

Also measure runout on the spindle taper. Some of these spindles are good and do comply to the <0,005mm TIR given, some of them are really bad doing worse than 0,1mm TIR. There is no pattern; either you are lucky or you are not.
The sellers usually accept complaints about that and solve it (a little pressure may be needed but luckily they are very allergic to bad reviews on Ebay), but not if you complain two months after buying and using it.

Thanks
I wish I had seen this sooner. I didn't see anything about running in the bearings and started cutting after getting it dialed in. It was very light duty work so hopefully that counts for something.
One thing I have noticed is the spindle has a lot of axial movement. I have been thinking about taking it apart to see if I can tighten it up.
I don't think I have come across any info or manuals on taking the motor apart. I also haven't looked into it too much. I assume I need to take off the collar at the base and then unthread the piece on the spindle with the two holes in it.
It sounds like you have taken these apart. Is that a standard size spanner to take that off? What did you use?
Do you know if/how to take up that axial play?
What grease do you recommend?

yoshimitsuspeed wrote: Thanks
I wish I had seen this sooner. I didn't see anything about running in the bearings and started cutting after getting it dialed in. It was very light duty work so hopefully that counts for something.
One thing I have noticed is the spindle has a lot of axial movement.

It should not have any.

It sounds like you have taken these apart. Is that a standard size spanner to take that off? What did you use?
Do you know if/how to take up that axial play?

I did not take mine apart, although I think I should have done so when I received the spindle.
If you google around there are some reports about taking apart these spindles. This one for example (but there are more): www.cnczone.com/forums/spindles-vfd/1294...dle-disassembly.html

What grease do you recommend?

Some highspeed spindel bearing grease like SKF LGLT2 , Klueber Isoflex Super Tel , etc. I have no experience with either of these greases, but that is what was recommended to me.

DaBit wrote: It wasn't purely experimentation, but not a fixed set of parameters either. Basically it is altering the V/F curve using PD006, PD007, PD009 and PD010. In my manual on page 28 there are some graphs..

You want to set the intermediate voltage and frequency in such a way that the motor current (VFD can display that too) reaches it's maximum when you load the spindle at low RPM (say 3000; tuning lower rpm's make no sense).

You still don't have much power at those RPMs though. Even in an ideal situation there is only (3000/24000) * 2.2 = 0,275kW available.
For really decent milling of steel with these spindles there is one magic word: AlTiN coating on solid carbide endmills. Futhermore it helps to avoid sharp corners, slot milling and especially plunging in your CNC programs.

Dabit, I have been trying to figure this out, My manual has no graphs to go from, do you mind sharing your settings of pd006, 7,9, 10?
Also could you mention if you are using a 2.2kw spindle?

I'll check the parameters for you when I am at the CNC again.

But to be honest I think you must understand what you are changing and why because you can do a lot of harm with those parameters and they are different from setup to setup. so copying my set of parameters is probably a bad idea, although it gives you a starting point.

I am not using a 2.2kW spindle, but a 3kW one.