Pablo,
I think that quote is just for the quick change spindle adapter. The spindle or router motor is separate?

Heath,

You are correct, this cartridge spindle is directly coupled to the motor of your choice. So the noise levels will be dependent on whatever motor your are using.

The Avenger spindles will be provided with a 1 year warranty, and any service can be provided by Blurry Customs. Manuals will be available as we get closer to our January ship date.

I think some of the confusion is the fact that it is being labeled a spindle and people connect that with motor.

Heath, this product is a true "spindle" in the original sense. The thing that we commonly call a spindle is more correctly known as a "motorised spindle" (electric, air, whatever) or an "electrospindle"

Gerald is right here. We would be more adept to refer to our product as the "spindle" or "cartridge spindle" itself while the drive motor would be referred to as exactly that, the "motor" or "engine". I too am guilty of throwing the different terms around for the different varieties. As "electrospindle" would be the more appropriate term for the drive electric motor and toolholder interface that are integrated into a single package, like a Bosch 1617EVS.

Many "cartridge spindles", as commonly used on large metalworking machines, are coupled to a motor via belts or gears, so that they can be geared down for high torque applications. But at speeds of 24,000 rpm, gears and belts tend to go the wayside, which is why our "cartridge spindle" is directly coupled to the spindle motor of your choice. Translating the speed and torque characteristics of the selected "motor" through our cartridge spindle, and to the tool.

Our product is actually very simple, and it's a shame that the semantics gets confusing, but please let us know if we can clear up any confusion.

Bearings
 

What is the rated bearing life and at what duty? 50% @ 20,000 RPM ?

Good question.

I wish it was that easy, but bearing life is highly dependent on loads (radial and axial) applied to the bearings, as well as many other factors. This could get very technical so, it may need to go into a different thread, which I would be happy to contribute to as best I can (not being a bearing designer).

Also note: After calculating in numerous factors, bearing life is typically rated in either a number of millions of revolutions (sometimes referred to as pressure cycles) or hours of operation at a constant speed.

I am sure that there are a number of others here who would be considered more experienced, and please feel free to throw out corrections as necessary.

I wish it was as easy as saying "the bearings are rated at 4,000 hours." :D

Are the bearings ceramic or steel?

Does the unit use industry standard bearing sizes i.e. can be purchased from any bearing supplier.

Will you be stocking bearing kits with instructions on how to replace bearing, seals etc..?
If so, what sort of price range would the kits cost?

Maintenance is an issue for the people who do not live in the USA.

Will I need special tools to be able to disassemble and assemble to replace bearings, seals, etc... or will I need to send it back to your factory?

One thing I forgot to ask about was - tool holders carousel

Can you give some information on your tool holder carousel for this unit eg
Number of tool holders that can be used in the carousel
Are the holders held in a linear or circular type arrangement?
Cost of unit

The bearings are steel, and yes they are industry standard sizes. We do have ceramics available, and would be able to offer it as an upgrade if there is enough interest there.

Naturally, our preference would be for repairs to be done in house, and this would be necessary for repairs covered under our warranty. We will also be stocking replacement parts should they be necessary, and will make every possible effort to make life simple for customers outside of the United States, in regard to repairs made under warranty and not.

That being said, this unit was designed for simplicity, and that in turn has provided a very low maintenance system.

We do not produce a tool holder carousel at this time, though development is in progress. We will be stocking tool forks that can be easily adapted into current machine designs, especially in a linear magazine arrangement (see pic below).

http://quickspindle.com/images/toolmagazine.jpg

New website is now available for viewing. Construction will continue as we add information, but it is a good place to get all of the latest available details. All videos and pictures will be posted there when they become available as well.

http://www.quickspindle.com

:)

Wow, that's actually more expensive than I thought it would be.
But a good product, no doubt about that.
Had hoped the price would be somewhat lower, but I guess we can't get it all at one time. :D

Well, keep checking back. Preorders are going fairly well, and we're looking at some more discounts a little sooner than we expected.

Alex,
Do you have a drawing that you can supply for the footprint of the 2 vertical mounting brackets and how far the two brackets should be separated. I would like to determine if there any major modifications that that to be done to the MM z axis plate setup.

What safety features have you incorporated in the design should the air supply fails?
I would not like to drop a tool holder at 24 000 rpm!!!!

Thankyou.

Chris,

There has been some concern that the mounts are too wide to clear the v-rollers on the Z axis. Though the overall width is 5", the mounts are chamfered to produce a 3.5" wide mounting surface. Based on my studies of the Mechmate drawings, little to no modification should be needed for the standard z axis plate. Please let me know if your findings are different.

In our standard mounting configuration, the bottom mount is fixed, and the upper mount is adjustable from 3.75" to 4.25" between the mounting holes. The mounting holes are 30mm wide (or 1.1811") which is similar to a standard Colombo mounting pattern.

Standard mounting drawing attached.

Chris,

My apologies for forgetting to address the last part of your question.

Our spindle, like many others, uses air pressure only to release the toolholder, and mechanical spring force to lock the tool holder. So, should air supply fail, the gripping mechanism is not compromised, you will just need to restore the air supply to release the tool holder.

Well, it's only been a few days and we have had very good response for these preorders. We have decided to increase production levels, which translates into some further discounts on these preorders: :)

Preorder price as of Dec. 7, 2009

$1,845.00 per spindle and $8 off tool holders

One note regarding shipping:

Increased production will be putting a strain on our shipping schedule, so we will be shipping on a first come first serve basis starting at the end of January.

Let me know if there are any questions.

Hi Alex,

please excuse my dumb question, but I still don´t get it.
Is the Avenger an ATC with Spindle or does the Spindle/Motor have to be attached separately? I´m using a chinese Spindle 2.2 kW. How is it going to be attached to the ATC or am i not going to use it anymore?

Claus

Claudio

As i see it, it's for Router motors ex. Bosch, PorterCable, Milwaukee and so on, not for real HF Spindles.

Alex,

Can you post a video of this thing in action on say the Milwaukee 5625-20 Router. Or some photos of it hooked to a regular router motor?

Thanks,

Mike

Claus,

No problem, let me try and clear the confusion.

In this picture:

http://www.blurrycustoms.com/Images/avenger1_pub.jpg

You can see that the Bosch 1617EVS motor is mounted the in the top of the Avenger spindle. All you have to do is load your motor with our coupling (using either a 1/2" or 3/8" collet) and then drop your motor into the Avenger system, and tighten it down.

The Avenger system can accommodate nearly any round motor under 4.25" in diameter. This includes 80mm and 100mm Chinese water cooled motors.

Claus, yes, you can use your current 2.2kW spindle. Assuming it is a round motor with a 100mm or smaller diameter.

Let me know if this information helps, or if further explanation is required.

We will be posting video of the unit in action, and preferably before our pre-order deadline. Just bear with us as we put it together. :D

Videos!!! I can't wait!! The price is looking better!! May I ask, why did you guys decide to use non industry standard tool holders instead of a BT30 or the like? Sorry, just had to ask.

:) After long hard discussions and analysis on the subject, we just couldn't get the BT holders to fit our design requirements, specifically space. So we bread an ISO/HSK hybrid tool holder.

Hi Alex, Thank you for the quick answer. I have a few more if you don't mind. Where does the air enter this thing and how is it triggered by Mach3? Any PDF manual yet? Can you post a picture of the test/development setup with it all connected to the air supply? Thanks!

David,

In the picture above, all hoses will enter through the slot on the front of the adapter. On the front of the unit, is a "terminal block" for hoses (not seen in picture above). From there, we will be supplying 10ft of hose that will run to the remote solenoid. The user will need to run the supply air to this solenoid, connected with an air hose with a 1/4" female QD.

The solenoid is powered via a 12v adapter (included) with leads that run to your control box, and leads that run to the switch on the spindle itself (for manual tool release). Mach control is the same as switching a relay on and off. If your breakout board output cannot handle 12v (.38A), you will need a NO relay.

Video, manual and pictures are in the works, will get it up here as soon as we can.

Had a few poeple ask ing about the difference between the tool holders. The long toolholders provide an extra 1" of reach.

http://quickspindle.com/images/avqs toolholders1.jpg

Hi Alex,

How's the new spindles going? Any video's yet of your progress? Looking forward to the developement.

Videos, and pics are coming together, and we will get them up as soon as possible.

We did have the preorder deadline set at the end of last week, but will be pushing it until after we have some video up! :)

Whatever software you are utilizing for these 3d images is pretty amazing. I guess I best hit the books and find out what it is... Great job

James

Any Vids yet? Any pics or the real thing?

Hi Alex,
I was wondering if you guys have finished the demo video that shows us salivating Mechmate builders whats on offer with your avenger ATC. If you guys are shipping in January, certainly a promotional video would help seal the deal for me and probably a number of builders here. Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

My apologies for not updating this thread we have been very swamped getting caught up with these spindle.

This update should have been provided awhile ago.

Please bear with us as we make sure everything is in order for this great new product.

Thank you for your answer. I have great respect for a company that makes sure things are done right before releasing a product. I (or should I say "we") patiently await your video/pictures.

Any news on this yet?

Any news or reviews on this item yet?

I'll second that question. I think there must be some serious delays as it is being discussed on CNCzone as well. If I were to venture a guess as to what the delay would be about, I'd say it has something to do with the coupling of the router/spindle to the drive train.

This design is definitely unique, but if the motor shaft of the router/spindle isn't perfectly in line with the shaft of assembly (very difficult to achieve such a perfect alignment), say good bye to your bearings in short order.

I'm am on the hunt for an auto tool change solution. After showing a few spindle Manufactures that make belt driven units the pictures, they all mentioned this as their first comment after I told them what the pictures were. I found a belt driven version that is cheaper but won't fit into the Mechmate design as the motor (any high speed 3phase motor that is inverter driven) has to be next to the tool changer. You could pull it off if you add a second Y-motor to compensate for the mass and move the spider plate to the rear of the cavity it sits in. But, you lose the space for dust collection hose. Decisions, Decisions

Hey all,

We have been fighting the urge to post here, but I do owe you all some news on the Avenger system.

I have refrained from posting any news, videos and pictures until we have smoothed our production delays, and gotten some of these pre-orders up and running. I will, of course, admit that our initial announcement was premature, but we don't want to repeat the mistake by posting more news and videos before we have our delays worked out.

In regard to the coupling system, it was an interesting engineering challenge, but it is one that we feel we have found a solid solution for. More details will be provided for those curious, upon our "official release".

Thank you all for your interest and patience.

Hi Alex,

I'd be happy to see just a simple prototype video that shows that this thing actually works and can take the load of a 50mm cutter surfacing the spoil board, change to a 5mm endmill for drilling, and then, changing over to a 12mm compression spiral for cutting out sheets of 18mm sheet stock. I ready for a tool changer and will be buying one in the next three to four months hopefully.

Do you have a ball park estimate as to when such "production delays" will be sorted out? Do you need an OEM? I have a lot of good contacts in Taiwan and China as well if you are interested.

No rush, just a customer looking for a solution that you may be able to provide.

Thanks

Just giving this a bump. Any news on this? If it really works and is in production I would be interested. So far, looks like a good idea that didn't really work out.

Dave

I found this place doing a retro tool change system on a porter cable router.
It looks interesting.

http://www.midwestrapidtool.com/

Has anybody tried one?

Kenneth