The Standard Tormach PCNC CNC Mill is limited to a maximum spindle speed of 5000RPM which is fine for most milling jobs except when it comes to engraving cutters and small end mills between 1-3mm dia. A Kress spindle and bracket is available from Tormach but by the time import duties are paid it is over expensive. Kress spindles are available in the UK at a reasonable price so I thought I would buy one and make my own mount for the mill.

I started making it from steel but suffered a mishap when it shifted while being machined and the job was ruined. I had a re-think and decided the being the spindle would only be subjected to light loads so Aluminium would be ok for the job.

I need to make a register ring for mounting the spindle parallel to the the main spindle to ensure that it sits squarely on the main spindle nose and keeps the Kress spindle clear of the main spindle guard but other than that it seems to have turned out OK.

I am waiting for some collets for the Kress to arrive and when they do I will give it a try.

Edited By JasonB on 01/04/2016 08:23:06

Predictive text is a nuisance. For Superbly in the titles read "Superfly" Oh' & thanks Chris.

Hi Michael,

John seems to have answered your question and I think, on reflection, that I might well have gone for one of the cheaper Chinese spindles as they seem to be good value for money.

One thing I noticed in the Kress literature is that although described as "Milling" spindles in the small print somewhere they seem to indicate that they are not suitable for cutting metal. We shall see. I know one thing for sure I shall have to make sure the coolant is switched off auto when I use it and also will have to watch for metal cuttings getting into the open cooling vents around the motor.

Kwil,

I do have a tripod for my camera but unfortunately just about every time I go to use it with the camera the battery is flat, so on this occasion and indeed on one or two others I reverted to my phone camera, hence the shaky nature and odd camera angles (there is only one way you can mount the camera on the tripod)