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Remake- Quiet Cut Spindle Upgrade for gShield

Marc Schaefermeyer

Project by

Marc Schaefermeyer

General Information

This really is one of the best upgrades for the Shapeoko! The rotary tool that it comes with is a good start but way too noisy! I followed the crowd and upgraded to the DeWalt DW660 which is even louder! (I cut when I have time, which is late at night and I needed something quiet!) THIS ROCKS!

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Material Description Price
Enclosed Power Supply

Enclosed Power Supply

Output Voltage: 48VDC - 2014 - 2017, Current: 7.29A, Power: 350W

ER11-A Collets and Nuts

ER11-A Collets and Nuts

ER11-A Collet 1/4in

$7.17

Isolated Relay Circuit

Isolated Relay Circuit

Number of Relays: 1

Quiet Cut Spindle

Quiet Cut Spindle

Power: 300W, Voltage: 48VDC

Spindle Speed Controller

Spindle Speed Controller

DC Spindle Speed Controller

$35.00

This project's Bill of Materials is not complete.

$42.17
from Inventables

1

Follow the Original Project

I followed the original project on this upgrade.
http://blog.inventables.com/2014/06/shapeoko-upgrade-quite-cut-spindle-with.html

Here is a video of the overview.

2

Build the enclosure

I built this enclosure out of .25" melamine with .5" square dowels in the corners.
The 3 stepper motors are wired into 4-pin mic/CB connectors. The spindle and Arduino power are wired into simple center pin power connectors.
The 110v coming in was taken out of an old PC Power Supply to wire into the Enclosed DC Power Supply.
The top of the box is a .125" thick clear acrylic that is really just sitting on top for now. I drilled holes into it so I could mount the Speed Controllers potentiometer and also the E-Stop button.
All of the wire inside of the box was hacked from that same PC Power Supply.
The fan on top of the GRBL Shield is a 5v fan that helps keep the Motor Controller cool while cutting and is wired right into the Arduino 5v.
The USB for now is just passed through the enclosure to the Arduino but I have plans to mount a USB Passthrough Connector.
In order to access the “Reset” button on the GRBL Shield/Arduino, I hooked up an old monetary reset button from an old PC case (its the blue/white wire you can see sticking out of the right side of the enclosure in the picture. I will eventually mount this into the top acrylic as well.

Dean Melillo
Would you show me your diagram of wires and etc? not interesting about box. Thanks.
Dean Melillo
Marc Schaefermeyer
Dean, I used the original Quiet Spindle wiring diagram. The only part that is different is that I used an old PC 110v Connector instead of cutting up the end of the cable. I plan on making a complete walk through video of it.
Marc Schaefermeyer
Russell Hueske
Is the gShield running off of the spindle's power supply?
Russell Hueske
Marc Schaefermeyer
Russell, the gShield is powered via the original 24v power supply that came with my original ShapeOko. (Well it was until this weekend when it failed and I had to supply a new one.) I like to keep them separate to eliminate any possibility of interference to the motors/arduino.
Marc Schaefermeyer
Stephan K
you should have used your router to make a custom box for your electronics
Stephan K
Marc Schaefermeyer
Stephan K. I would have but given that I was presenting my machine last year at the Mini MakerFaire. I had to hurry and get something built and didn't have time to design, cut, and make. Eventually I will make it nice and redo the enclosure. Thanks
Marc Schaefermeyer