johnsmachines

Yesterday the spindle was wired to the Variable Speed Drive – single to 3 phase converter, and to power. It span smoothly and quietly, and very fast.  Much quieter than a woodworking router of similar power and RPM.

Today I hooked up the coolant, after testing the pump.  But when I ran the coolant through the spindle, there was no movement of the coolant.  So I reversed the fluid connections in case it was direction specific, but still no action.

The pump and lines were OK, so there was a blockage in the spindle.

I removed the coolant connectors on the spindle, and I could see something white and foreign deep in the works.  A bit of poking around revealed that it was probably a bit of packaging foam.  I dug out some, then blasted the rest out with compressed air.  Testing with the compressed air showed that the way was now clear, so I reinserted the supplied fittings.

And one of them snapped level with the surface of the spindle cover.  Bugger bugger.

I managed to get the broken buried thread out of the spindle using an “Easy Out”.

The broken fitting looked complex.  I certainly did not want to wait for one from China, and I was very doubtful that it would be available locally.  I could have made one, but it looked like a half day job.

So I silver soldered it!

The top of the spindle. The fittings, with the broken one on the left.

The fitting in position for silver soldering. Resting on a nail held in a vice.

The fitting after silver soldering. The threads needed to be cleaned up by running a die down them

This is the setup during the first engraving job. The green fluid is the coolant.

Engraving a small brass plate, at 20000 rpm.