Micromill Support

With over 10 years of experiance in using the Micromill, we have built up a library of meterial to help with the running and upgrading of the Microproto based CNC mills, and have developed our own Chinese driver based control systems to add to a basic CNC ready Taig Mill. 

Starting point in Europe is the problem of 110V equipment from the US. Replacing the spindle motor with a 220/240V option is top of the list, and normally we bring machines over without a motor.

Motor for spindle.

Option 1 - Single Phase Motor 370W 2800RPM
We have a modified mounting plate and adapter which will go with the stock spindle and uses the stock pullies.
This essentially matches the 110V motor speed wise, but gives a 1/2Hp of power.

Option 2 - A three phase motor and inverter giving variable speed Variable Speed Spindle We have supplied a few of these as upgrades to the fix speed motor or to replace the 110V one. The ABB inverter has proven a reliable option when paired with a 1/2Hp three phase motor and uses the same mounting arangement as Option 1.

Option 3 - 'Scrap the spindle and collets' and go over to the Kress Spindles. I've only used the 800W motor on my mill since changing over many years ago, but sometimes I do wish I had a little slower speed. The 1050 spindle does at least go down to 5000RPM while I'm stuck with 10k. The current problem is we are actually out of stock of the motor mounts and while the material has been sitting at a machine shop in Worcester for many months ... no sign of them being finished :( On the TODO list to sort out.

Ignoring the mounting problem, there is another option on the Kress spindles with an ER16 collet version available at an extra £70 over the FME1050-1 ... While £70 will buy a few collets, being able to use your existing ones is a start, and ER16 collets are cheaper than the Kress custom collets. Add using option 1 as well and you have the best of both worlds with some slower fixed speeds and high speed for engraving.

Option 2 gives a full range of speed for less than the ER16 Kress option with a mount of some sort, just lacks the top end speed which you can probably do without. And I can ship that package fairly quickly.

Next MAJOR job on the TODO list is to sort out a replacement for Mach3 on a parallel port with an old computer to drive the machine.