I’m doing a new MPCNC build…I’ve had a few before, but would like something a little different this time. I’m also sick of burning up brushes on a dw660
Has anyone used a Makita brushless router? I’ve been eyeballing the XTR01Z. It’s similar weight to the dw660, will take the same elaire collets from the store as the brushed version, and it should be easy enough to feed with a power supply…theres a few threads where someone did this on a shapeoko with a VESC & it just looks like a fabulously fun project.
A quick search shows the XTR01Z as being roughly double the price of the RT070xx, without battery or power supply. It would likely work, and I suppose that if you have one gathering dust in your house, it might be worthwhile depending on the cost of a power supply.
I know the battery needs to talk to the tool, so you can’t easily use one as a handy power source, but I thought the tool also wants to talk to the battery. I have never tried just feeding 18VDC to a Makita cordless tool, though I have tried using a Makita battery as a power supply.
It’s brushless & I have a tiny pile of dead brushes from swapping them out. The self feedback should let it hold rpm better (not that bogging is a huge issue). It should be a lot quieter and cooler which is nice since this one is going in an enclosure.
Half the fun will be figuring out the vesc part.
Powering it is just a matter of feeding some voltage to the correct terminals. Even easier with a battery adapter and some terminals
The RT070X routers also have a compensating speed control, so RPM remains constant under load. I personally find them at least significantly less loud than the DeWalt tool. (Does DeWalt intentionally make their stuff loud? The Kendo club bought a DeWalt fan that is at least 8dB louder than the generic one that I have, at about the same amount of air movement!)
I have yet to replace the brushes on the Makita from my Primo, and since the Makita has been replaced with a different spindle, so it is now back to being a trim router, I don’t know when such a replacement will be necessary. Indo know that I can buy many sets of brushes for the difference in cost between it and the cordless version.
Cooler? Heat is a function of dissipated power, so cooler only happens if there is less power. 100% of the power used in a tool becomes heat. (Well, or noise, which can escape the enclosure.)
A cordless tool is likely to be lower power than the AC powered version I guess, but either should only use as much power as is needed to do the job. Assuming both use similar bearings, I would expect power dissipation to be similar. Maybe different cooling?
I really like the idea of a brushless router. I wonder why companies haven’t done that a lot more for wired tools, always just the battery powered ones…
groan…
