Colombo with elec fan

[carlcnc]

Is anyone using a Colombo spindle with elec fan?
does the fan need a separate circuit?,or does it eventually come on via a thermostat?

thanks
Carl

[davidp]

Hi Carl,

The fan has a seperate circuit but it should always be on when the spindle is on.

On the front of the spindle there is a connector box, if you open that you will find which wires are the connection for the fan. If you bought your spindle from ShopBot it will be pre wired.

The fans can be fairly ordinary in their performance. We blew two in the first year of operation, but the current fan has been going for about three years now with out a problem. I now keep a spare just in case.

David

[carlcnc]

David
thanks, I got this in a buy-out deal , it looks new
this is the first spindle I have with elec fan,
have you looked in your box? I would assume that you get fan power using one of the motor inputs to one fan terminal and the other fan terminal to ground?
thanks
Carl

[don]

There are times when the fan on my spindle turns slower than I think it should. I sent an email to The fan on my PDSColumbo asking if this is normal.
Here is the reply I got back from Todd Brooks from Precision Drive Systems

"If you have been running the spindle for 6
years with no issues, then you are probably OK. The spindle fan should turn
at approx. 3600 rpm on 60 Hz power. In some of the older Shopbot packages,
the spindle fan used a sleeve bearing and would sometimes stop rotating due
to interference from the VFD. The newer spindles incorporate fans with ball
bearings and no longer have these issues. If you wish to get a new fan,
they are $80. The expected bearing life of the spindle is about 5000 hours,
which is about 2 years of 2 shifts per day."

[davidp]

Carl

I checked my fan today and it takes its power from the main supply, ie the supply to the spindle. There is no seperate supply.

The information that Don has provided fits my experieince. The original fans only lasted months, after the second failure I sourced a different fan with it is still going strong.

David

[bcammack]

Double-check that your fan matches this one. I sourced this as the identical part to replace ours on our 5HP Colombo last fall from www.onlinecomponents.com (http://www.onlinecomponents.com) At this price, I ordered two.


Part #:3656
Mfg: EBM PAPST
Each: $38.02

[carlcnc]

Guys
thanks for all the info, PDS emailed me a pdf file
for the wiring{thanks Todd}
I bench tested this spindle ,runs smooth and much quieter than my others with shaft fans,

Carl

[carlcnc]

Fan update:
I, a lot of my projects are quick,1- 5minutes cutting,then a few minutes of re-fixturing. cycling a VFD on and off so often is not good .I have always left them on till end of the day
I also didn't like the idea of the fan running continuously ,read manual on my vfd and found there are two :aux: pins rated 250V1A, now my fan only comes on when spindle is running.

I didn't like the idea of the fan running all day