I wonder if those reporting a little ‘sag’ of the front plate with the 611 are all mounting it higher with the button ‘covered’ by the default holder shape, and if it could be related? Down in the ‘proper’ minimum z-height position it’s not putting as much strain on the mounting plate?
Finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on all my projects that preceded the Xcarve so the boxes have moved out to the build location in the garage, cheap-arse Core2Duo compact form factor refurb computer bought (only intend to use it for the actual jobs not CAD…was $119 for 4GB RAM and a 250GB HDD, should be enough and hardly worth the trash bag to throw it in if it doesn’t work out), and looking forward to starting assembly of my own machine next week. Been reading all these posts and about ready to just pull the trigger on the DW611 and never even install the stock spindle since I do want to do hardwoods and perhaps some aluminum in time. Got the 1m kit, NEMA 23 and ACME leadscrew upgrades, and limit switches…
And just to be clear, you only need ‘extra’ parts mentioned upthread (eccentric nuts, v-wheels, etc) if you want to keep the 300W spindle assembly together and be able to swap out with the 611 easily, vs moving the parts to the 611 assembly?
That is correct. You do NOT need to purchase ANY other parts to mount the dewalt aside from the mount itself. In the box you will get the new mount and 2 screws. The two screws are used in place of the existing screws that attach the spindle to the derin nut that is threaded on the lead screw for the Z Axis.
The only reason to purchase additional hardware is, as you mentioned, to be able to swap the stock spindle out with the dewalt from time to time but I cannot see any reason to do that. The dewalt is slightly louder than the default spindle but not to the point where you need to be concerned about using some sort of hearing protection. The loudest thing in your carving process will be you Shop Vac.
I got my x-carve assembled (Yay!) and did some test cuts with the 611.
I was using a collet reducer, but It was not working well. It could not keep a good grip in the bit. At first I thought my z axis was loosing steps Until the bit slip down and cut a nasty grove in my waste board .
After 3 attempts I gave up and switched to a Rotozip chuck adaptor.
That worked much better and I was able to get carving
That should get me up and running until I can order up a proper 1/8’ collet.
I just set up my Dewalt 611 hooked to a relay like your drawing. The spindle comes on when I set the logic switch to on, but nothing I’ve been able to do gets it to auto turn on when in logic position. Any ideas?
Two pinouts on power supply goint to stock spindle turns on and off when you start job. You may want to switch wires negative to positive on yor relay input. Maybe that’s the reason. We don’t have such problem.
yah, it’s wierd, the two pin outs for the stock spindle go straight to the relay. The relay does turn on when you turn the switch on the power suppy to on, but it won’t turn on automatically when the switch is in logic.
Something wrong on that point. Your relay functioning normal, Easel not sending Spindle on command. Go ahead and run Machine setup to see, leave it on Logic mode (Down), when doing machine setup, one point asking Spindle control, say Auto, check to see if Router start turning.
I’ve done the whole machine setup, left it in logic, and set it to auto, but the spindle didn’t come on. @BrianSaban I’ll double check the arduino pins when I get home from work, that could be the culprit. Thanks for the help guys.
I have mine low enough that the button sticks out, works fine. I’ve also seen a notch cut out for the button. I’ve also thought about moving the dewalt back up higher, and instead of cutting out a notch, drill and tap a hole where the button is and put a thumb screw like this there. Might make doing bit changes easier without moving the carriage.
For anyone else planning on using a SuperPid with the 611, I’ve just about got mine hooked up. Since you have to bypass the speed control circuit to use it, I ended up just taking the whole speed control circuit out and rewiring the power cord directly to the motor. This leaves plenty of room to install the SuperPid speed sensor, and seems like it would be much easier than bypassing the circuit in place. I also made use of the LEDs built into the 611 by extending the wire running to them all the way back to a power supply and switch in my SuperPID enclosure. After looking at pictures of replacement parts online, I’m pretty sure that the LED setup in the router is just two white LEDs in series. This means you can run them with anything above 7 volts DC or so. I used a DC buck converter adjusted to 9V output (24V x-carve power supply as input), and a 150 ohm current limiting resistor.
