Ok so the original spindle that came with my xcarve had the problem where after some light use it wouldn’t start spinning unless I gave it a little nudge. I was making due until it also caused the stepper to start moving. I got the new one in and today was the first real day of use I got out of it, and then tonight flipped the switch and no spindle. Could I have just gotten two bad spindles in a row, or is it possible there is something wrong with my setup? Both times I double and triple checked my conceptions and everything seems sound. Please help!
When you switch on the spindle, what’s the voltage out of the power supply, if there is any is it reaching the spindle screw terminals?
Are all the screws tight and making good contact?
All the wiring is super snug. Not sure on the voltage but I will check right now. What do you think might be happening?
@Kyis 24.0v at the spindle
Hmmm try disconnecting the spindle connector and measure the resistance across the spindle (using the connector screws as contacts), mine shows 0.6ohm (less than 0.4 would be very odd and too far above 0.5 as well).
Edit: These seem to pop up more and more, I wonder if it was a bad batch… hard to prevent too, can’t really stress test each and every spindle going out waiting for something to go wrong.
Well that’s not good. 1.9 ohm
Yeah or it might be naive of me to think of my spindle as a baseline. Though that’s quite a difference for the same stuff… It’d be nice to have a third measurement on another spindle to know what kind of a difference we’re dealing with…
To be honest I was expecting a very large value, or an open circuit since your spindle doesn’t even twitch at 24v and the PSU isn’t overloaded.
EDIT: The only things I can think to try are more by curiosity than real purpose at this point, like measuring the current drawn by the spindle, which should probably be around 13A. (provided your meter can handle it)
Maybe try another supply as well just to rule that out since it’s the second spindle to go silent. A shitty 12V 36W wall wart makes mine spin, 12V 13W makes it feel easier to spin one way and harder the other, I wouldn’t try it with a supply you hold dear though ^^)
If the PSU is fine then I would go for a replacement spindle.
Yeah when this happened to my first spindle, inventables was pretty awesome and overnighter me a nes one. . . That was monday lol. I’m just figured if the problem is somewhere else I should know before I have another problem.
Mine is 0.5 ohms. So it’s very unlikely that 1.9 ohms is good.
Got it taken care of. It is definitely a bad spindle. Talked to inventables and they are letting me upgrade because of the repeated spindle failure. I have to say any trouble caused by equipment failure has been immediately rectified through excellent customer service.
@Jean_marcGendreau yup that’s what I get at the spindle as well, +0.1ohm of wire from the connector.
@IGWwoodworks good for you, and good of Inventables. ^^
We pretty much know how to diagnose that particular spindle now.
Mine seems to have started showing the same symptoms… if I just ding the holder or collet with my scribe it starts going (I honestly burst out laughing the first time it happened) but then everything just stops randomly mid-job so I’ll hold off doing anything for now.
After measurement the spindle resistance ranges from 1ohm to 200k (turning the spindle while stopping on each “notch”), I suspect it’s only turning with the help of its inertia.
EDIT: Just thought I would mention that Inventables is sending me a replacement, awesome customer support as I’ve seen time and again around here.
Another vote for Inventables support. My spindle was dying and they sent me two replacements - because I live in Aus, they didn’t want to inconvenience me if the replacement was also faulty…
Whilst I’ve upgraded to the DeWalt machine (and I’d strongly encourage everyone else to do the same), the support I got means wherever possible, I try to order through Inventables.
They supported me, so I’ll support them…
1 Like