Do those cheap laser tachometers work at all? Also how hard would it be to wire a tachometer to my vfd so i know what the rpms are. Id prefer not to rip open the box and wire stuff bc the mill runs great but if i need to it would be a future project. Right now i am looking for a cheaper way to check my rpms.
-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
[Newbie] Spindle tachometer
- Thread starter Brento
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2011
- Messages
- 2,062
I've used optical tachs for quite a few years. They do a pretty good job of telling you your RPM. There may not be a good way to run a tach directly from a VFD. If you could, it would give you the motor RPM, but not the spindle RPM. You would have to be able to enter a different correction factor for every possible belt (or gear) combination.
Try a search like "machining tachometer". There are plenty of tachs available that read a magnet on the output shaft and give you the RPM.
Try a search like "machining tachometer". There are plenty of tachs available that read a magnet on the output shaft and give you the RPM.
Ive seen alot of the laser style ones for like 22$ im thinking of trying. I know they have those okf spindle tachs that you but up against the spindle and ive seen them work good. I just want on of them bc it involves me taking my tool out to get an rpm.