How to use another company spindle without getting errors

Hello Everyone - I am new to Sienci and the Altmill with two challenges that I hope I can get some guidance on. The first is about the surfacing tool in GSender. The second is how can a VFD spindle by another company be used without connecting it to the controller or have it not seen in GSender?

Machine: Altmill Mrk 2
Received it: First week in November 2025 (upgraded from FoxAlien EX-Pro)
GSender No: 1.5.6
OS: Windows 11 Pro

My first question is why when I defined the area to be surfaced using GSender Surfacing Tool, the outline does not complete. It starts at the back-left corner, then moves to the front-left corner, then back to back-left corner, over to the back-right corner, then to the front-right corner then shoot diagonlly back to the back-left corner then stops. it never goes from the front-right corner to the front-left conrner. I even tried and pressed the START button but got an ERROR 2.

I received my Altmill Mk2 in Novmeber 2025. I ordered the 2.2kw spindle but I have to wait until the middle of January 2026 when my electrician can get to my project to put a 220v subpanel in my workarea for the spindle. For the time bing, I thought that I can get started by, at least, surfacing the spoilboard. I was planning to use the 1.5kw VFD spindle by FoxAlien and operate it as one would a trim router by controlling it directly through its VFD control while GSender controls. How do I set up GSender so It does not give me a error about my spindle?

Sorry for being verbose about these issues. I am just eager to get something started. Even if it is just surfacing my board.

Thank you all!

@johna58 FWIW, I can duplicate the outline routine that you are seeing. With respect, I simply don’t see why it matters. The outline shows that the machine has correctly identified the four corner limits of the toolpath. That is what we are looking for, I believe. I guess the issue will be if the surfacing toolpath is not actually surfacing the area that you have idenfiied. You can confirm this by setting your Z0 above the spoilboard and running the gcode.
As for as the spindle question, I don’t have an Altmill. However, I don’t see why you can’t simply turn off any spindle options in the firmware and run the spindle that you have as a non-controlled router. Certainly, that is possible with a Long Mill controlled by an SLB.

1 Like