Spindle Motor for Zen Toolworks CNC Machine Kit, with Tool Holders Review

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(More customer reviews)This motor is very quiet, as advertised, but at 7000 RPM it is slower than may be expected
I picked up a black and decker rotary tool for 25$ and its lowest setting was approximately 12000 RPM while also being quite quiet (the higher settings would cause the bit to get hot quickly, scorch the wood and get quite noisy).
Also keep in mind that this motor does not include a power supply, one more thing you'll have to buy separately. Though these can be picked up for cheap, I was using a replacement printer power supply.
This spindle package is nice because it comes with mounts, hardware and a bit was thrown in with mine, however a power supply would have been nice.

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This motor with precision Jacobs chuck can accept 0.3 - 4mm drill bits or end mills. The speed can be adjusted from 5000 rpm (24v) to 8500 rpm (36v). The optimum operation input voltage is between 26 - 36Volt DC. The brushes can be replaced, and one set of extra brush is included in the package. It also come with the holding frames that you can easily put onto your CNC machine, hardware packet is also included.The best of this motor is that it is super quiet during operation, even less noise than the stepper motors make. Pictures below show the spindle working on a block of aluminum.All following items will be included in the package: * One DC spindle motor with Jacobs chuck * Chuck key * One set of replacement brush * Motor holding frames (4 pcs) * Hardware packet (screws, washers and etc)

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4" Cross Slide Drill Press Vise Metal Milling Machine Review

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(More customer reviews)Those of you complaining about the quality of the product are probably not happy with anything ever. You need to consider that you cant even buy a standard bench vise for 30 dollars let alone a vise with an x and y axis movement. Those of you with realistic expectations will be thoroughly satisfied. Those of you who want professional machinist quality results will need to shell out 100 dollars or more. You get what you pay for. I am totally happy with the vise because I had 30 dollar expectations for a 30 dollar product.

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A fully adjustable heavy duty 4" Cross Slide Vise. Turn your drill press into a milling machine. Our cross slide drill press vise features: Heavy duty construction, Jaw width: 4", Maximum jaw opening: 3 1/2", Vise travel: 5 1/2", Vise and cross slide have adjustable shims for fine adjustment, Base size: 9" x 5", Overall unit size 11" x 11" x 6 1/4", Precision threaded clamping and cross slide screws, Cross slides have removable adjusting crank handles

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Zen Toolworks CNC Carving Machine DIY Kit 7x7 Review

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(More customer reviews)Zen Toolworks DIY CNC Machine Review:
Short reviews are great but I decided that mine should be a bit longer and in depth so anyone who reads it will have a better idea of what exactly a Zen Toolwork CNC Kit is. In short It is a GREAT item. If you want a short review see below.
Short Review: A Must have. One of the Best Investments I have ever made as far as tools go. Buy it!!!
Long Review:
A MUST HAVE for anyone who wants to get started with CNC with an excellent well made precise and affordable machine. If you want to design prototypes, carve foam, plastic metal or wood (this machine is perfect for doing wood engraving as it has a fantastic detail level even when down to extremely small designs with the right bits) or even if you just want to make small custom and/or precision parts on occasion for models or RC vehicles; or perhaps just do a little custom engraving once in a while this machine is more then able to handle the task without emptying your wallet. And it's a Kit! So you get to have a great time building it!
Arrival: From the time it shipped to the time it was at my door was 2 days. I live in NJ and the CNC kit came from CA so that was very fast shipping!!!
Upon opening the box I found everything very well packed, very tight and secure. I did a parts count and everything is where it should be with a few extra screws, bolts and washers.
Parts:
The material that makes up the body of the machine is very strong. Much stronger then I would have initially though. The box must have weighted in at over 40 pounds, as the body material is very heavy and sturdy. Anything that was not made of the gray body material (such as the driver screws or the rails) was steel or stainless steel.
Quality: All parts except the motors are brand new. However in the description it does say that the motors are used. Considering that the Stepper motors are probably the most expensive part of a CNC machine this is where the real savings are as the motors while used are very well made and appear to have a lot of life left in them. I don't think I will be burning out any of these 3 motors any time soon. So everything came as described or better. For the price paid the quality can not be beat and surpasses what most people would expect for a CNC machine priced well under $1200 even under $300 as Amazon has them listed at an absurdly low $299.95. As far as CNC machines go less then $300 is near free when you compare it to others of the same size. This machines ability appears to on par and in many cases better then the "cheap" desktop models others are selling for $1100 on up. After building it and seeing what can be done I can say that this is one of the best deals out there for any type of CNC machine or tools. All moving parts have multiple ball bearings so nothing is dragging. Even after reading all the positive reviews I was still pleasantly surprised at the sturdy design and well made parts.
Ease of Assembly: All you really need is a cheap Walmart $1 Hex Key set, a small vise, a Phillips screwdriver, a power screwdriver (saves a lot of time but not really needed) and some common sense. Total tool cost for what is needed to assemble this kit if you don't have any tools at all (everyone has screw drivers right?) would be less then $30 and that is with a cheap power driver or about $10 to $15 without the power driver. The tough part is getting the small side of the driving screws to fit the ball bearings as it is a tight fit and they need to be pressed into the bearing. I found it easiest to get the driving screws into the bearings first as I do not have a drill press handy (a cheap $40 one from Sears could do it) and then use a small vise to gently press the edges of the bearings into the body parts. If you have access to any kind of drill press this can be done really easy using the press to put the driving screw into the bearing after it is in the body. It took me about 4 ½ hours to assemble and I had to back up a few steps because I forgot to check the alignment of a few holes (this means I put a few panels on backwards because I was not paying attention) and had to disassemble a few steps back to reposition a few of the body parts about 3 or 4 times. That was my fault however. The only customization that needs to be made is a mount for your cutting tool. I have a dremel tool so fabricating something was easy enough. Even a quick fix however would be fine because once attached you can use the machine to make a better mount. I will say I had a great time just building this machine. I am already tempted to order another one just to build it. Maybe I can talk a few friends into buying them and letting me do the assembly. Everything was easy and well made and fit where it was suppose to fit. When you read the online instructions for assembly it says that you should take your time and it does not have to all be built in one day but once you start you just get into it and have such a good time that you really want to finish it all at once. This was a 0% frustration build and very fun.

You will still need to buy a power supply and driver card but they can be found cheap online. You will have to make your own interface cables for the driver to talk to the motors but it only takes about 10 min a cable (You will need 3) if you want to wrap it nice and make sure it is all insulated. This is the one area you don't want to be cheap on price or time about (I spent about an hour doing cables and about $10 for wires, tape and connectors at Radio Shack. Get the color variety pack. It helps to color code). If you cross a line you could fry out your board or your stepper motor so make sure everything is separated nicely and insulated well. Most importantly make sure you have a male/female Printer cable! I did the whole build, wires and all; and at 1:30am I was looking forward to a dry run with just a sharpie to check out the level of details that can be done and to make sure everything was working correctly after building the unit and getting all excited about running it when I realized I had no printer cable. Plus it was snowing so badly that everything was going to be closed the next day so I had to wait a few days to get one. These are all over EBay if you just type "CNC Cable" in the search so if you don't have one you can get one shipped for less then $10 if you look online. If you have any mom and pop computer shops nearby they may have one there if you look and odds are it will be free or only be a few dollars as the cables are not used much and just take up space. Everything went together really easily. Electronics as well.
Size: This is a desktop CNC Machine so it is small enough not to be in the way, about the size of a large desktop laser business printer or about 1 ½ times the size of a desktop printer/scanner/copier and 2 times as high; which is great if you do not have a lot of room. I currently have mine sitting on a rolling laptop table and it takes up about 60% of it. 100% with the card and power supply but that is because I have it mounted to a Plexiglass base as I am in the process of building a housing for the electronics) Do not let the size fool you however. The work area sounds small on paper but once it is built there is more working room then initially thought. There are many things that can be fabricated with a machine this size that would surprise you. If you check out Youtube there are some good postings of some of the basic things this machine can do as well as a great video of a detail engraving on an aluminum block. While Zen Toolworks appears to be a young company and this CNC machine is still a fairly new product, I expect to see a lot more of these videos soon as it is the least expensive machine you can buy and one of the best investments anyone can make for their shop. This desktop CNC Machine is just big enough to make almost anything you could want a small 3 axis CNC machine to make in the work area AND the worktable is raised enough so that a larger then 7x7 item could be fabricated and/or engraved in sections without the frame getting in the way. It is small enough to be out of the way if you have a small shop or even an apartment with limited working space.Level of Detail: The first thing I did once I got the machine built was to use a small metal bar and attached it as a mount with some screws to hold it in place and some zip ties for a pen so I could do a test run on a sheet of paper. I used Mach3 and jogged the unit manually to see how accurate it is. Jogging produced a good level of detail but the small amount of time that it takes to tap a button doesn't allow for a real test of the machines detail levels as you can not get really fine levels just manually jogging the machine. So the next thing I did was to use Mach3's Lazy Cam feature and just typed out my Fiancés name, picked a font and did a drag and drop. It took about 5 min to do the 8 letter name. I had the machine set for a fairly small font with the lettering outlined so it was a hollow letter which is why it took that long to make. The font size on paper would be similar to a #10 font size if you were to use a printer. Just using a cheap pen and only being held in place with zip ties I was able to produce an extremely accurate and very fine level of detail. No misses, skips or miss alignments. It doesn't sound like much but considering the small size and type of font once you see it done it is very impressive. To get an idea find a hollow text font and in size 10 print out a name. This machine did that with a pen and with a much thinner line going point by point without missing a beat. Let's say that after that I was very impressed. Not only was it perfectly drawn the round parts of the path where actually round and not just short lines. Next I found a...Read more›

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NOT INCLUDED ' This is just the CNC machine with motors. You will need a 3 Axis Stepper Motor Driver to manage each motor, a spindle/cutter (a Dremel would work) and a DC power supply for the driver. You will also need a computer with a standard printer port and CNC software. ' You will also need a way to mount and secure the spindle/cutter tightly to the Z-axis plate on the machine. We offer a Spindle Kit complete with a mounting frame for this machine. We also offer a 3 Axis Stepper Motor Driver that we use with our CNC systems.

You can see some video demos of this machine in action. Just go to YouTube and search for "Zen Toolworks CNC"

You are looking at a DIY kit of a CNC carving machine. Now you can build your very own CNC carving machine to do relief carving, letter cutting, inlay and all other interesting features to enhance your woodworking, PCB or other projects.

The body of the machine is constructed with high density PVC boards. Steel guid rod, linear bearing and stainless steel lead screws are used to construct the moving parts. The anti-backlash brass nut design will virtually eliminate all backlashes. New Nema 17 motors(2 phases, 1.3A, 4 leads) for all three axis are also included. The install is very easy, if you have a bench vise and a power screw driver, that will really help. Install instruction CD is included in the package. Assembling the CNC is very fun and only takes around 3-4 hours to complete. You will be amazed by what can be achieved by this machine. Finally, you can build and own your very own CNC machine for a price that's within your budget!

When you purchase, you will be invited to join our member-only discussion forum. This is a good place to get support and learn from other CNC users and share your own knowledge.

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Dakota Products PG001 Pumpkin Gutter Pumpkin Carving Tool Review

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(More customer reviews)I love my Pumpkin Gutter, last Halloween I gutted and thinned 5 pumpkins in minutes. It makes the worst part of jack-o-lantern making easy. Pumpkins are so much easier to carve when thinned, and this tool makes thinning them a simple and quick task. I also use it as a heavy duty whisk all year.

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Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)Personally I think it was a great idea by Dremmel but it was not well designed. I wouldn't purchase this product again for one reason only ---> It drains 4 AA Batteries so fast that you minus well just by a ac powered Dremmel and save some $$$. Also, the bit that comes with the pumpkin package is a joke. Anyway, just save your money and put it towards a real Dremmel and you will have lots of fun with it. Again, great idea, but poor execution...

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For those looking to take their Halloween decorations to the next level, the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit allows fast, easy sculpting of spectacularly spooky jack-o'-lanterns. Create intricate, frighteningly festive designs on pumpkin surfaces using the lightweight 6-Volt Dremel Alkaline Cordless Rotary Tool, which offers two speeds for varying levels of intricacy. The included high-speed cutter accessory has rounded edges and is ideal for carving fine details, and 10 templates make carving elaborate pumpkin designs as easy as tracing a drawing.
Take Pumpkin Carving to the Next LevelIf you're ready to carve a jack-o'-lantern with a more sophisticated design than the traditional toothy grin, the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit is for you. The kit's carving tool is not intended to cut through the pumpkin. Instead--after the gourd has been cut open and cleaned out--the tool is used to etch designs into the pumpkin's surface by removing layers of the skin. When a light is placed inside the jack-o'-lantern, it illuminates the design and produces a glowing effect.
Two Carving Speeds to Meet Your NeedsThe hero of the Pumpkin Carving Kit is the 6-Volt Dremel Alkaline Cordless Rotary Tool. This carving tool offers two speeds--7,000 and 14,000 rotations per minute--to aid carvers with varying levels of experience. The low speed is ideal for gaining control over small and intricate designs and is more manageable for beginners. As you become more experienced with the tool, you can use the high speed for faster carving.
Lightweight and Cordless for Convenient CarvingThe rotary tool is compact and weighs only 6 ounces, which means it's easy to carry and handle. As an added convenience, the cutting tool is cordless, so you won't have to worry about finding extension cords or power outlets. Just pop four 'AA' batteries into the rotary tool, and you'll be ready to etch your next eerie emblem.
High-Speed Cutter Accessory for Detailed SculptingIn addition to the rotary tool, the Pumpkin Carving Kit comes with a Dremel 191 High-Speed Cutter accessory. The cutter has rounded edges and is ideal for intricate work. A handy black wrench easily secures the 1/8-inch high-speed cutter to the rotary tool, so you can make precise surface cuts and detailed designs.
Templates Make Carving as Easy as Tracing a DrawingThe Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit includes 10 artistic jack-o'-lantern templates that range in level of difficulty: two ghosts, a witch, a haunted house, a scary cat, two snaggletooth faces, a vampire, a skeleton and a "Happy Halloween" tagline. Additional templates can be downloaded from the carving templates page at dremel.com.
Whether you follow the templates strictly or combine them to form your own unique creations, each one makes the best of your tool's options, so you can carve a jack-o'-lantern you'll be proud of. Just stick a template on the side of your pumpkin and cut away--the Pumpkin Carving Kit makes carving intricate pumpkin designs as easy as tracing a drawing.
Carve Gourds, Apples, Soaps, and MorePumpkins aren't the only material that can be carved and decorated using the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit. Use the rotary tool to carve and decorate gourds or apples (the apples will shrivel to create a scary effect), or carve Halloween shapes out of bars of soap to add spirit to bathrooms and kitchens. The Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit can even be used on artificial pumpkins--create designs on foam pumpkins and ensure the longevity of your Halloween decorations for years to come.
The Dremel Carving Kit is backed by a manufacturer's two-year warranty.
About Dremel: A Commitment to Innovation and QualitySince inventing the high-speed rotary tool more than 75 years ago, Dremel has become the trusted name in high-speed rotary tool technology, providing creative solutions for hands-on professionals, homeowners, craftspeople, and artists alike. Dremel's leadership in design and manufacturing has made it the top seller of rotary tools in the world, a reflection of the company's commitment to innovation and quality.
Today, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Robert Bosch Tool Corporation in Mount Prospect, Illinois, Dremel continues to build upon this legacy with a full line of high-performance rotary tools, benchtop products, specialty tools, accessories, and attachments--delivering the perfect solution for almost any job. Regardless of what your task may be, you'll quickly realize you can depend on Dremel to provide the satisfaction of a job well done.
What's in the Box6-Volt Dremel Alkaline Cordless Rotary Tool, 191 High-Speed Cutter, 10 carving templates, and wrench.

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