Water Cooled Spindle

Dave38

Dave38

theemperorhasnoclotheson
Silver Member
Have a question for guys/gals that use water cooled spindles on their CNC, What temp is your coolant after a couple hours of running? I have a Huangyang 2.2kw 220v spindle/inverter and I am using a 5 gallon pail with 2 gallons of distilled water with 1 gallon of 50/50 radiator coolant. Ran the maiden voyage yesterday and re-aligned everything and after a couple hrs of running the temp in the pail was 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The spindle felt warm, but not hot. I was not hogging any cuts, just removing a couple thou while aligning/testing things out. Tried looking for operating temps for the spindle but seems everyone has a different opinion more than factual info. Just trying to make sure I don't cook anything.
Thanks,
Dave
 
Never measured it, but I have 20 litres of coolant in a big plastic bin under the router. So it has a lot of surface area to dissipate heat. Never actually measured the temp when running, but only gets to feeling warm to the touch. Not hot that I can't leave my hand on the body. Keep in mind that it needs to dissipate the heat of running and cutting through the coolant. If the water mass is not enough or the ability for that mass in the container is not enough to dissipate the heat, it will continue to get hotter. Some do have it going through a bike radiator or a car heater radiator to dissipate some heat from the coolant on the outlet side. We have run our router for up to 16 hours and have not had any issues with it . Which reminds me, I should change out the coolant as it has been in there since 2014 and not ever been changed.
 
The the larger the coolant tank the cooler it will run. 115 degrees isn't nothing. Outside air temp out here is around that and I'm still alive! 😅
5 gal should be more than efficient, however, 10 gal would be better. If you want to run a smaller amount of coolant, coil some line in a small frig, poke a hole in the sides and run it thru that.
 
If you want more efficient cooling, use a radiator meant for watercooling computers. You can get 360mm radiators from Corsair (probably others too) The radiator comes with 1/4" threads, so it's quick to hook it up to your system. If you want, you can mount 3x120mm fans.
 
Mine runs about the same as yours Dave.

I would consider this to be a healthy temperature for your spindle motor.

Cooler isn't always better. Car engines suffer dearly when run under temp of about 200F so I would think you're in a good range.
 
I thought everyone was using air cooled spindles. I am really behind times. What spindles are you guys using?
 
JC said:
Mine runs about the same as yours Dave.

I would consider this to be a healthy temperature for your spindle motor.

Cooler isn't always better. Car engines suffer dearly when run under temp of about 200F so I would think you're in a good range.
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Same here Dave, doesn't seem to matter if it's a 20 minute job or an 8-10 hour continuous job (I also do some 3-D carvings on my machine) nor how hard I'm driving it. I have a tub with 1 1/2 Gal. of distilled water and a Gal. of coolant. Has worked fine for a couple years.

JC is spot on that too cool can be nearly as bad as too hot although I'm not convinced that there was much thought put into the design of these things regarding the optimal operating temperature and bearing tolerances at those temperatures. ;)

Glad to hear you've got it up and running!
 
cueman said:
I thought everyone was using air cooled spindles. I am really behind times. What spindles are you guys using?
Click to expand...
Mine came with the CNC. It's 2.2kw. ER20 collets and 0-24000 rpm. Compared to a Makita or Kress it's remarkably quiet. It's got a lot more power too.
 
Thanks for the response guys. I feel better knowing it's in the ball park. Plus I found out the temp unit I was using is reading very high....like 107 just sitting on the bench....time for a new one. I did increase the bucket size to a tub around 8-10 gallon size and using 5 gallons of coolant now just to be safe...we are also around 95-98 degrees outside right now, so more is better...LOL. REALLY happy right now with the really low noise factor and no vibrations like the trim router made. I have the 2.2KW 220 volt unit....the fans on my VFD and Stepper Controller box are louder than the spindle. In the video, the background noise (Dust colloector) makes it all seem loud but it really isn't....the cutter hitting the wood also sounds louder than the overall machine noise
 
JC said:
Mine runs about the same as yours Dave.

I would consider this to be a healthy temperature for your spindle motor.

Cooler isn't always better. Car engines suffer dearly when run under temp of about 200F so I would think you're in a good range.
Click to expand...

Given the simplicity of the spindle and the complexity of a car I don't see the correlation but you work on cars :) Keeping it cool will keep it more efficient (heat creates resistance and you lose effective power) and make it last longer (higher temps cause expansion and contraction which can create cracks in wires, etc.). The temps listed here seem to be ok (had to search myself) as it seems most DRY spindles run in the 140 to 160 range at times.
 
Chili Palmer said:
Given the simplicity of the spindle and the complexity of a car I don't see the correlation but you work on cars :) Keeping it cool will keep it more efficient (heat creates resistance and you lose effective power) and make it last longer (higher temps cause expansion and contraction which can create cracks in wires, etc.). The temps listed here seem to be ok (had to search myself) as it seems most DRY spindles run in the 140 to 160 range at times.
Click to expand...
Then why not just cool it with the low pressure side of a refrigeration system? If cool is good cold must be better right.

Use liquid nitrogen. Freeze the bitch until the shaft gets brittle and explodes.

Because warm is better than cold. That's why. Warm is not hot.
 
JC said:
Then why not just cool it with the low pressure side of a refrigeration system? If cool is good cold must be better right.

Use liquid nitrogen. Freeze the bitch until the shaft gets brittle and explodes.

Because warm is better than cold. That's why. Warm is not hot.
Click to expand...

If you're going to be a dick, may I suggest you login with your other username?
 
The reason for the warm up cycle is to get it all to a stable temp before you get working , so that Z zero changes very little. With a lot of machines being AL, there can be up to a couple of thou on the Z height.
 
conetip said:
The reason for the warm up cycle is to get it all to a stable temp before you get working , so that Z zero changes very little. With a lot of machines being AL, there can be up to a couple of thou on the Z height.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it's similar to car where you let things warm up so the tolerances are where they're supposed to be, too hot and things don't work, too cold, and things get worn out too fast.

Oh, and cool is not cold ;)
 
JC said:
Then why not just cool it with the low pressure side of a refrigeration system? If cool is good cold must be better right.

Use liquid nitrogen. Freeze the bitch until the shaft gets brittle and explodes.

Because warm is better than cold. That's why. Warm is not hot.
Click to expand...
Is someone having a bad day? :LOL:
 
Dave38 said:
Thanks for the response guys. I feel better knowing it's in the ball park. Plus I found out the temp unit I was using is reading very high....like 107 just sitting on the bench....time for a new one. I did increase the bucket size to a tub around 8-10 gallon size and using 5 gallons of coolant now just to be safe...we are also around 95-98 degrees outside right now, so more is better...LOL. REALLY happy right now with the really low noise factor and no vibrations like the trim router made. I have the 2.2KW 220 volt unit....the fans on my VFD and Stepper Controller box are louder than the spindle. In the video, the background noise (Dust colloector) makes it all seem loud but it really isn't....the cutter hitting the wood also sounds louder than the overall machine noise
Click to expand...
Nice.
I think I hear interrupted cuts . Cutter sounds like it could use some OD'ng.
 
JoeyInCali said:
Nice.
I think I hear interrupted cuts . Cutter sounds like it could use some OD'ng.
Click to expand...
Joey, you are correct with the cuts, it was a slightly warped shaft blank being used a s a test piece. The 3 wing cutter actually (off the shelf) has one cutter about 3-4 thousand lower than the other 2
 
JoeyInCali said:
Nice.
I think I hear interrupted cuts . Cutter sounds like it could use some OD'ng.
Click to expand...
Dave38 said:
Joey, you are correct with the cuts, it was a slightly warped shaft blank being used a s a test piece. The 3 wing cutter actually (off the shelf) has one cutter about 3-4 thousand lower than the other 2
Click to expand...

I just wanted to say that these are the little things that keep me coming back here. I'm sure if you're experienced you picked up on that noise right away, given my lack of experience I never would've heard it but now I know what to listen for.

Thanks (y)
 
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