Unpopular take: letting the machine idle during setup is better than constant spindle stops

I was at a shop over in Dayton last month helping a buddy with his Haas and he kept killing the spindle every time he walked away for 5 minutes... says it saves wear. Look, I get the logic, but I've been running a Prototrak since 2019 and I've cycled the spindle maybe 3 times in 5 years without any issues. Starting and stopping that thing constantly puts more stress on the inverter than just letting it hum. Has anyone else seen real damage from leaving it idle or is this just an old school habit?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_murphy19d ago

That's exactly what I've been telling people for years now. The soft start and stop cycles on modern drives are designed for continuous operation, not for being hammered on and off all day long. A buddy of mine had a Fadal that he never shut the spindle off on unless he was changing tools, and that machine ran for close to 15 years without ever needing a spindle drive repair. On the flip side, I know a shop that had a frantic operator who'd kill the spindle every time they walked to the tool crib, and they went through two inverters in three years. The thermal cycling from repeated starts just cooks those components over time, especially if the machine is in a warm environment to begin with. It's definitely an old habit that needs to die out.

norab2119d ago

@fiona_murphy you hit the nail on the head, that thermal cycling really does them in.

brooke76719d ago

Went through this exact thing a few years back. Started leaving my spindle running during short breaks and tool changes. Cut my drive failures in half easy. The first time I tried it, felt wrong honestly. But the numbers don't lie. My repair guy kept telling me the same thing your buddy learned. Heat cycles are the killer, not the runtime. Once I stopped fighting that fact, my machines stayed running way longer.