Thread: Water cooled spindle hose connections

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welcome to our forum
just purchased a machine , or building your own ?

cheers ken

Thanks SawDustSniffer,
My water tank is about 20L,. I'm going to use distilled water, my question is: can I use Preston car coolant, and how much to this volume?
Mike

Hi Ken,
I recently imported the above named router. Very pleased with it so far, extremely solid machine. Have some issues though, with the rotary axis. The Chinese sellers are very tricky or just careless with the order. I asked for a 4 axis machine, and Yes Dear Mike we can do it. However, the machine I received was built as 3 axis + rotary. Meaning, the X axis is swapped for the rotary. Of course, this is not what I wanted. So, I ordered another axis driver, final cost, US$127.00. Than, trying to get it going with MACH3, no go. After many emails with the Mach3 team, and some engineer bodies of mine came in too, the conclusion was, that the plug in for Mach3 they supplied was at fault. I contacted them (Chinese people), and they acknowledged that I need a 4 axis plug in, which they can supply for US$280. I said no way, I'm willing to pay the $50 difference between the two soft wares, so they said OK + $25 s/h fee. So, there I am now.
Let this be a warning to anybody, that wants a 4 axis machine, be very, very clear when ordering, to make sure, they understand that this is what you want.
Mike

your lucky , after buying a 6545 from china i found out the line was discontinued and the VDF supplied had manufacturing faults and was useless , haven't seen a post yet of a 6545 with a working control box

Originally Posted by ncpro

Thanks SawDustSniffer,
My water tank is about 20L,. I'm going to use distilled water, my question is: can I use Preston car coolant, and how much to this volume?
Mike

Dont know that brand , but im using " coolant " as a "corrosion inhibitor " and also avoided using different metals in the plumbing, i went with all copper ( worst would be a mix of copper / aluminium fittings , try too keep it all one metal )
i just used as per directions on the side of the bottle
cheers ken

Well, actually it is too early for me to rejoice. I haven't cut anything with it yet. But tell me Ken, what do I need to add to the water and how much?
Mike

you probably dont have to add anything to the water , the difference might be 15 years use before corrosion , with distilled water and corrosion protection compared to 10 years with out any and tap water , i think the main body of the spindle is stainless steel and quite thick , i went with "coolent " because im running a copper radiator with fans and would like to protect that for as long as possible ( high ambient heat here )

just read the side of the bottle of coolent , and go by the manufactures recommendations for the coolent you bye , not shore of the weather extremes in your area , anti freeze might be a better option

Thanks Ken.

that gent
another question of mine awnsered
cheers Tony

+1 for me too.

(where's a good source for suitable tubing/connectors? aquarium supplier?)

i built a cupboard for my cnc , with the cooling hoses bundled with the power cord go straight to the top of the cupboard ,
i used cheep spiral air line ( blue) from bunnings ( it fits the hose clamps on the spindle ) and zip tied the 2 hoses and power cord in a spiral straight up from the machine ( not in cable chain )
all my electronics are in 3 draws above the machine area ( upside down draw) with fans blowing air into the draw area from behind (out side) causing a positive pressure so no dust gets into the electronics

the cooling lines then change to 1/2 inch black polly and run to the right hand side of the cupboard and the hot coolant runs through a 3 bay PC radiator , then into the coolant sump , where an over sized coolant pump (240 volt ) pumps it back up , the pump is way too big so i put in a second radiator on a bypass line , that runs 10x the flow through the second radiator and 1/10th to the spindle ,
complete over kill on the cooling
cupboard is still a work in progress , it will use 13x 920 solid core doors ,so will end up over 500kg , falcon station wagon gas struts hold up the main door to machine , i get the solid core doors free from work ( replacements )

one of my plans is too line the inside with hardiefex , water proof it , then tile it with falls so the use of coolant while cutting is possible, it also needs a dust shoe with vacuum line up the centre of the coolent/power spiral

in tasmainia you might get a way with a large storage coolent tank and no cooling , but in Mount Isa ,sorry you will need cooling if you want to use it on a 40c + day in summer with large 3d cuts lasting 8hours or more ( could always waste water from the tap and trickel water the garden with the waste )

I used 4mm clear line I got in a roll from bunnings. I think it came as a 10 meter length.

I have rain water at home so I mixed mine with glycol to reduce any problems. Distiller water should be fine, as mentioned its the other parts that pose a problem as the spindle is stainless steel and will probably out last the units operational life