We break-in each spindle motor that is shipping out to our customers. But it is important to know that regardless, it may be necessary to break-in or at the very least warm-up your spindle prior to running it at high speeds.
The grease used in these spindles and most spindles on the market easily freezes according to the manufacturer. Thus if you immediately ramp up your spindle to high speeds, you run the risk of damaging the bearings inside your motor.
Spindle motors are industrial equipment intended to run for hours and days on end without stopping… thus it is important to treat it properly.
If you allow your spindle to sit for weeks or months without warming it up or running it, you may need to re-run the break-in procedure found here: https://support.pwncnc.com/…/290-spindle-break-in…/
If you run your spindle regularly… you can simply run the warm-up procedure found here: https://support.pwncnc.com/kb/article/291-spindle-warm-up/
I just received a shipment of 1.5kw 65mm spindle motors that have been sitting in the UPS truck all night. This means they are really cold to the touch (perfect beer temp IMO)… the motor itself has a surface temp of 66… but the internal temp is likely closer to 50. If this were my spindle sitting in my shop for weeks or months… I’d rerun the the full break-in. But if I were just running it within the last day or two… a warm-up is all that’s needed.
The other motor I’m testing in the second photo has been sitting on our bench here in our 72deg warehouse for weeks and the surface temp likely reflects the internal temperature. Since this motor has been sitting for a long time, I’d run the break-in… otherwise if i just used it within the last week an abbreviated version of the warm-up is more than sufficient.
There is no clear-cut yes/no for which one you should run. It is a judgement call and if you have questions, reach out (support@pwncnc.com) and we can share what we recommend for any given situation.
All spindle motors come with a 6mo warranty… this is because we properly break-in spindles and have a good quality manufacturer backing us up. If your motor is older than 6mo and continues to have problems even after rerunning the full break-in procedure… we have started to stock replacement bearings (https://pwncnc.com/products/bearings). Note that it is possible to upgrade from steel to ceramic bearings.
In the spring we are going to work on a few videos and better documentation on actually performing a bearing replacement so you can DiY.
can’t wait to see this upgrade.
FYI, sadly Facebook is blocked where I am… If this not intentional to track something, please ensure links are straight links without Facebook loop.
I am one of those do not have Facebook account. Wanted to thank you for the pwncnc forum!
https://support.pwncnc.com/kb/article/290-spindle-break-in-procedure/
https://support.pwncnc.com/kb/article/291-spindle-warm-up/
I don’t know how / why it was linked like that, but appreciate you bringing it up. We created this to get away from Facebook ourselves.
Yikes… very nice catch… that’s not cool. Folks exactly like you are THE reason we started this forum. So we can interact with folks unable to use Facebook for whatever reason.
I’ve updated the original post as well… thank you.
One thing I noticed for the Onefinity CNC with the buildbotics controller is that the Pxxx command for the duration is in seconds, not milliseconds as shown in the article.
Anyways, to my issue/question. I’ve been away for two weeks. The machine is in an environmentally controlled area with temperature at 74 degrees and humidity at 45%. When I ran the warmup routine, for the first 4 minutes, there was a loud screeching sound coming from the spindle. 5 minutes in, the screeching went away and sound seemed normal. At 10 minutes, the spindle speed went to 12,000 RPM. When it changed, different screeching sound started for ~2 minutes. I have a video with the sound capture that I can send. Is this expected?
Thanks.
Thanks for the post Daniel. Haven’t run the CNC for a couple weeks due to other life miseries getting in the way. Modified your break-in procedure for the Masso on OneFinity Elite and gave it a run. Spindle started off sounding a little rough but was purring when finished. Modified the g-code for a quicker “start up” version I can run in “park” while setting up a project board. Great maintenance tip you provided to keep things running smooth. Thanks again!!
Nice add to suit your needs, I added park myself as well. We created it with the intent of maximum compatibility. Though were finding out different controllers accept gcode differently like buildbotics doesn’t appear to accept the millisecond parameter as reported by a user or another shapeoko user who wouldn’t elaborate on “doesn’t work”
Good day!
I’m new to the whole spindle world, and in turn, actually using g-commands. Would anyone share the coding for this “parked warm up” routine so that I may use it on my 1F as well? Also, with the new macros, I can save that as a macro so that I can use it as needed, right?
Thank you in advance!
There is one that you download there should be good. If you’re unable to run it, you’ll have to change the extension to something native the controller accepts.
I looked up the G4 command since my spindle seemed to be warming up forever and as skipchang mentioned above, grbl is in seconds. I rewrote the commands to run the same duration and speeds but adjusted the timer you send to your controller.
I’ve already tested this on my controller using grbl and it works as expected. Hope this helps someone in the future!! 
================ Copy Below This Header ==============
M3; spindle rotate CW
S6000; speed 6k rpm
g4 p600; pause 10 minutes (10x 60 seconds)
S12000
g4 p420; pause 7 minutes
S18000
g4 p180; pause 3 minutes
M5; spindle stop
It’s on how the controller interprets the g4 command.
My shapeoko 3 might have been in whole seconds, assuming i remember correctly, masso is milliseconds even though it was the same (with the p before the time) command.
I’ve seen it stated both ways. As far as I know, the Openbuilds x32 uses “vanilla” G Code…
If you spindle warms up forever, try the other one. If it runs for about 6 seconds, try the other one…
Added these today at the suggestion of my youngest and the warmup was dramatically reduced!!
Maybe it just makes the time go by faster because I now have someone to talk to. LOL
I hear it dramatically improves run times, but will check that out tomorrow
The last link ( (https://pwncnc.com/products/bearings).) is still going to Facebook when I click on it.
Try again, i fixed it
I manually wrote a warm-up program that follows Daniel’s recommended procedure. This program has a nice feature, in that it displays the time remaining on the warm-up cycle as the program runs. This way you don’t have to set a stopwatch, or guessing how much longer the 20 minute program will take.
Set your parking position in the F4 screen beforehand, as the spindle will move to the parking position before warming up. Another nice little perk.
I tried to post the file here, but I guess the forum restricts only certain file types to be posted. (Tried tricking it with renaming the file as a JPEG, but once again the forum outsmarted me.
Here’s the G-code. Copy paste this into a notepad file, then rename the file with a .nc extension.
%
(STINGRAY WARMUP CYCLE V2, JANUARY 20, 2025)
G90 G94 G17 G91.1
(G90 sets machine to Absolute)
(G94 sets machine units Per Minute)
(G17 sets machine to use XY Plane)
(G91.1 sets Incremental Distance Mode for I and K Offsets)
G20 (G20 Sets machine to inches)
(Move Machine to G58, Parking Position)
F400
G53 G01 Z0
G58 G01 X0 Y0
G54 (RESET WCS TO G54)
(WARM UP PHASE 1)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 20 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 19 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 18 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 17 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 16 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 15 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 14 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 13 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 12 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 11 min left.
S6000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
(WARM UP PHASE 2)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 10 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 9 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 8 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 7 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 6 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 5 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 4 min left.
S12000 M3 (SET SPINDLE SPEED, TURN ON SPINDLE)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
(WARM UP PHASE 3)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 3 min left.
S18000 (SET SPINDLE SPEED)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 2 min left.
S18000 (SET SPINDLE SPEED)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG Warming up. STAY CLEAR OF SPINDLE. 1 min left.
S18000 (SET SPINDLE SPEED)
G04 P60000 (DWELL)
MSG WARM UP COMPLETE!
M5 (TURN SPINDLE OFF)
G54 (RESET WCS TO G54)
M30 (PROGRAM END)
%
Thank you so much for posting this thread. It is information like this that will help us to learn to do things properly from the begin and not ruin our great piece of equipment.
Living in Colorado, you can imagine that the temps here get quite cold especially during the winter. Our CNC will be living in a cinder block building unattached to any other structures. There will be a heater in there to try to maintain temperatures above freezing during the winter. But I have a sneaking suspicion it may not be fully sufficient to keep the machines warm enough. Having a detailed warm up procedure is going to be vital for maintaining the reliability of our machine.
We may even insert a fish tank heater into the water tank for the cooler on the spindle. And then just have the circulation pump run continuously to keep the spindle warm. Time will tell if that is really necessary.