[ukpete]

I have a British made Emach (now defunct) cnc router that has run with no mechanical problems for the past eight years. A week ago in the middle of a job the 800w spindle stopped turning. The motor would start running up then trigger the over current cutout on the Invertek inverter. I diagnosed a faulty spindle motor and after several hours looking for a non-chinese replacement, admitted defeat and ordered a new chinese made 800w spindle (original spindle was chinese made too).

Fitting the new spindle gave the same fault, so I have now purchased a replacement identical 1.5kw Invertek Optidrive. Still, the new - and old - motor tries to run up and then triggers an over-current cutout. When I put a 20Amp clamp meter on the feed to the motor it goes into overload (ie. 20 amps plus). Inverter and drive are now stripped out of the machine on the bench and still the same problem. I am assuming that the new motor is the problem, in spite of readings between the windings of around 5 ohms, and no short between the motor voltage input pins and earth. Have I missed anything here? I am not optimistic about getting the chinese supplier to honour their two year warranty. Surely someone other than the chinese must make these spindles?

Peter

[Wombilly]

I have a British made Emach (now defunct) cnc router that has run with no mechanical problems for the past eight years. A week ago in the middle of a job the 800w spindle stopped turning. The motor would start running up then trigger the over current cutout on the Invertek inverter. I diagnosed a faulty spindle motor and after several hours looking for a non-chinese replacement, admitted defeat and ordered a new chinese made 800w spindle (original spindle was chinese made too).

Fitting the new spindle gave the same fault, so I have now purchased a replacement identical 1.5kw Invertek Optidrive. Still, the new - and old - motor tries to run up and then triggers an over-current cutout. When I put a 20Amp clamp meter on the feed to the motor it goes into overload (ie. 20 amps plus). Inverter and drive are now stripped out of the machine on the bench and still the same problem. I am assuming that the new motor is the problem, in spite of readings between the windings of around 5 ohms, and no short between the motor voltage input pins and earth. Have I missed anything here? I am not optimistic about getting the chinese supplier to honour their two year warranty. Surely someone other than the chinese must make these spindles?

Peter

1

[ukpete]

Finally sorted the problem by replacing the Chinese spindle with an expensive (£700) Italian spindle that now has the machine running fine again. Peter

[Dan911]

Glad to hear your back up and running. Were you able to determine what was wrong with the Chinese spindle (spindles)? Its odd that with a new inverter and spindle to get same error code. unless the original problem was with the old inverter and damaged both spindles. What inverter are you using with the new Italian spindle?

Dan