Hi all, how hot does your av70 get when you are running longer jobs? I have had my spindle for about 6 months now and I never remember it getting so hot that I can’t touch it. I keep my shop at 68 degrees. This last job it ran for 28min and the spindle was so hot that I could t couch it.
Can someone help me out on this?
Thank you
I have the AV40S, and I can tell you that runs very hot as well. Its funny, the two older spindles ran very cool, and the stepper motors were always very hot. Now that I’ve gone to the AV40S and servos, the spindle is always hot and the motors are cool.
These have a 24V electric cooling fan instead of a shaft driven fan, so the fan is quieter, and gives a consistent airflow down at lower spindle speeds, but I think probably not as much airflow as the shaft driven fans at higher speeds.
Anyway, it was 104 in my shop yesterday, and the motor was definitely hot (probably around 50-60C) but I don’t think thats going to hurt anything, most motors are made to take that kind of heat.
I live in AZ as well and I have always worried that my 4HP hitecho gets too hot, even with the spindle driven fan.
I have the AV40S and I noticed the same issue with the spindle getting quite hot after 30 min, hot enough that you can’t keep your finger on it for a few seconds. I installed a small aluminum block with PC thermal paste coupled to a digital thermometer and measured the temperature after 30 and 60 min. I tried to find an expected temperature range from manufacturer and found that this type of spindle have a temperature range between 30C-60C, not sure if this is the correct range, in situation, my spindle was reaching about 68C.
I troubleshooted the issue and I found out the air flow from fan on top of spindle was not displacing that heat with efficiency. I thought the air flow channels on each corner of spindle were obstructed, but not the case. The Avid folks thought the fan could be defective and send me a new one. I started the process of replacing the old fan and I noticed it was working fine. I observed the fan was pushing air downward, so I figured the fan was most likely wired backward. The fix was to flip the fan for an upward air displacement and I also installed on the left side of the spindle a dual cooling fans array to cool the outside. I’m quite please with the solution, my shop is in the basement with ambient temp around 20C and my spindle after 2 hrs at 18k RPM will run at 36-40C, about 30C cooler than before. hope this help.
Interesting. Can you drop a picture of your setup?
I have been thinking about upgrading my machine to the new EX, Servos, ATC, and AV70S, but have been holding off and studying the problems people are having.
I thought the fan direction was deliberate in order not to suck up dust/debris.
Hmm. Now I’m going to have to look into mine. I think it is sucking from bottom to top, but its hard to tell because there isn’t a lot of airflow. Almost seems like these need a more powerful fan motor.
If I recall correctly the severak conversations I had with the Avid tech support folks, the orientation of the air flow either downward or upward are both acceptable and expected to give proper cooling on the spindle. The downward air flow to avoid dust collection is a good observation. In my situation, I though since hot air is lighter than cool air, the downward flow is simply not moving that heat fast enough. I was thinking to add a furnace blower with flex piping on all four air conduits to have a higher CFM. When I flip the fan on top of spindle for upward flow, I did some further testing and setting my spindle at 18k rpm for 30 min the temperature reach about 52-55C (so below the 68C I measured before) well within the temperature spec’s I’ve seen on several website selling ATC spindle. Again, I do not have confirmation if this temperature range is accurate, but seems legite so far.
I bought a dual fan from amazon, was thinking a triple one! The size of the dual fan fits perfectly on the dust collector bracket. I use an L shape aluminium bracket, drill two holes, and a notch in middle of bracket to clear the tighneing bolt. I ran a 110 volt extension cord, now I can add additional accessories like a laser sight! I used double size tap to tack the fan control on front of spindle. In the picture, you can also see the aluminium block to act as a thermal sink with a digital thermocouple. I use PC thermal paste for heat transfer and get a better reading. With this setup, the temp reading is quite fast, about 20-30 seconds. I would rather have a direct contact with the spindle or a feature on software to have real-time temperature monitoring option. So far, with this setup and using a dual cooling option, with the spindle at 18k RPM, the temperature will ramp up to 36C-40C in the first 30 min, and shows 0.1C oscillations. I did two cutting jobs back to back, both took 1hr, and after 2 hrs of continuous operation the spindle temperature remain sligth warm to the touch and in the 36C-40C ramp. So far, my spindle is running much cooler!
I just tested my AV40S. At 32C ambient temp, the case temp came to equilibrium (free spinning at 20k rpm) at 60C after 30 min. Got the same result with fan running in either direction.
This is right at the safety limit for something people have to touch, but I don’t think its a reliability concern as long as the electronics bolted to the side are cool enough.
Excellent! another set of data that confirms my findings, and for both airflow direction! I was thinking that perhaps I had a defective spindle. I see that you did your testing with a much high RPM value (20k RPM), and it looks that 4HP and 8HP spindles are rated up to 24k RPM. In my experiments I’ve never used the spindle pass 18k RPM, don’t recall see a router bit needing this speed. Nonetheless, quite a useful experiment! It would be usefull to have the temperature range confirmed by the manufacturer, I presume the AV40S and AV70S are OEM’s, that is a piece of info that is not avaiable on AVID’s website at the moment.
I also noticed the bulk of the heat is located on the bottom and center of the spindle. To your point regarding “to keep the electronic cool”, I don’t recall noticing high temperature in that area and it looks like the spindle is operating within manafucturing specifications (again, would be great to know those values).
I updated my 4HP spindle last fall for the ATC AV40S, and I don’t recall the Hiteco 4HP getting this hot. And to your concern Bean, no regrets on my part for the EX controller and ATC AV40S upgrade. I would’ve like to go with the servo motor and 8 HP, but difficult to justify the extra fundings, my shop is more of a hobby than full production! quite pleased with my current setup!
I noticed the same thing that the heat is more down at the bottom. I’m guessing thats where the motor is and the upper part is probalby the pnuematics and mechanical parts for the toolholder latch.
The electronics on mine are pretty cool, and even if they were running around 60C, thats still ok for case temp on most electronic parts that I’ve worked with.
I do really like this spindle, it is very quiet, and the build quality and fit and finish seem to be a lot better than the previous two spindles I had.
I just got my Aux Box installed, so I’m looking forward to getting to full automation with it so I can do automated tool changes as well.
