I recently purchased a generic 500w brushless spindle.
I’m replacing a Bosch GKF500 trim router. the main reasons were
- it’s WAY too noisy.
- no speed control… 33,000 fixed RPM which is too fast
- collet is max 1/4 inch
- did I mention it was loud?
I wasn’t sure how well the generic spindle would perform.
I haven’t heard great things about the brushed spindles, the main issue with them them being the shaft bearings have a rubber boot on them to dampen and isolate the shaft from the house… but rubber ins’t great for rigidity!
So, how well does it work??
when I got it, I pulled it apart expecting to see the same rubber bearing boot… I did have a plan to fix that but, THANKFULLY the bearings were directly mounted to the body.
The one issue was there was about 1mm of axle shaft play, this was because there was a wave washer between the bearing and the housing with very light spring preload holding the shaft to one side.
I 3D printed a 1mm spacer so I could eliminate the spring… I kept the washer in there, the spacer is just there to compress it. it’s printed in ABS for durability and it’s on the tops side of the motor where the fan is so it stays cool.
I’ve only done a few test cuts but it’s performing great, it’s sooo quiet compared to the Bosch router, the speed control is great and the ER16 collet is a big upgrade from the max 1/4 collet router.
here’s a test cut video, 6mm 2F endmill, 0.3mm chip load, 12K rpm@4500mm/min, 5mm cut depth.
