I’m running my MPCNC with a DW660. My machine is inside of an enclosure, so the noise is not too much, but it gets a bit warm inside of it. It made me wonder… how long is too long to run a DW660? Will it run for hours and hours or should I give it a break every so often to let it cool down? I’m not sure what I would make that would take hours and hours, but I can see the possibility with some 3D carves.
I would think it would run for hours and hours. I haven’t run mine more than about 90 minutes at a time but I think the printed parts would soften before the router would fail.
I would run it nonstop. I think whatever a mason would use it for would be more stressful than our CNC machines. It also has a 1 yr warranty.
No warranty on mine. I bought it on Craigslist for dirt cheap. But it makes sense that the stress on it is minimal compared to what it was designed for. I’ll just let 'er rip 'til it burns up. If it dies, I’m not losing much. Thanks Jeff.
Good to know Jamie. Thanks.
This is always a great question. On my laser forum there have been lots of robust discussions about how long to run a laser and what is a failure mode use. It lead to a big discussion of how jet engines are run.
Is running a job for 4 hours worse than breaking it up and doing four one hour jobs with rests in the middle?
What is the failure mode? I would say that this is relevant in discussing overheating possibilities for an air cooled spindle.
I suppose that bearings that are run at the rated speeds have a failure mode that is dependent on absolute use. I guess loads can figure into this. Since I am only doing wood, I haven’t considered that much.
Since my Craftsman never seems to get warm to the touch nor do I smell bearings or any other type of friction heat, I just assume a 10 hour job is the same as using it for five hours for two days in a row.
They can get really beat up for a very long time, then you just replace the brushes and keep going. Pretty sure Wesly is the long record holder, probably something like 6 sets of brushes before he bought another dewalt just in case. He uses his so much he is still on a gen 1 MPCNC and doesn’t have enough down time to rebuild with the new parts. Just checked his insta, looks like he is still using the OG dewalt.
1 Like
I know I’ve done at least one 8-10 hour run on mine a while ago. The DW660 did fine, the shop vac smoked itself lol
1 Like
ouch, I watch his vids but I missed that one.
Mine was a lot less dramatic. Dumb luck that it started smoking one of the (few) times I walked in to that room to check on it.
I ordered a fein, interlinked smoke detectors and an IP cam that’ll alert me when the smoke alarms go off after that though. There’s also a fire extinguisher sitting next to both mpcnc’s. Not risking that twice.
I never leave mine and I suggest you stay there too. Mine dove in and the collet was smoking. I smelled the smoke. I was literally holding a smoke alarm trying to install it. It didn’t go off.
These really are a lot more dangerous than 3D printers. If the spoil board catches fire, you have a small opportunity to stop the fire from spreading.
1 Like
My first time running the machine was to drill holes for a 4’x4’ spoilboard, and I didn’t know what I was doing. The rate was wayyyy too slow, and it took the machine 5 hours to do half the board. I checked on it periodically throughout the process, while I worked on other things in my office. At the 5 hour mark, I walked into a smokey garage and the smell of fire - not to worry, it wasn’t the machine. The drillbit was covered in black char, and I’ve discovered since that it was burning the MDF due to the slow feed rate.
Needless to say, I think the Dewalt 660 can run no problem for several hours.
1 Like