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Has anyone added some liquid into the cooling water to avoid alga in chiller ?
I just found some dirty inside it and now I have to run the system few times
with pure water and clean the water tank. Could small particles of alga break
the tube when running the laser ?
Thank's in advance !
- Hannu
Hi Hannu,
I use engine anti freeze in my coolant for both my laser and water cooled spindle. It works like a charm and twelve months later, the water is still crystal clear, albeit with a hint of pink :)
You are using distilled or reverse osmosis water aren't you? You do need to make sure the water is perfectly clear before you start.
Mike
Hi Mike,
And thank's for your promt answer ! Yes, I'm using distilled water and I
change it about once in two months ( approximate :o ). But now I have
been a few weeks without using it and just wanted to check the water
before start - and then I noticed this dirty inside the tank...
There is space for about 6 litres of water. Do you have some advice what
would be the mix ratio for water and anti freeze ? I have to take the tank
out of the chiller and clean it thorough. Also have to run the tube several
times with pure water...
Best greetings
- Hannu
I have a forty litre tank, for the laser, and use a whole litre of antifreeze. My spindle coolant tank is only five litres and I use about one quarter litre in that.
Hope this helps,
Mike
Thank you Mike,
Helps a lot - I don't have to make any tests - just make the mix :)
Best regards
- Hannu
There is one think I have to complain; Watching WC-snooker takes too much
time from lasering - and that's British peoples blame !! > Too critical hobby to
leave without watching, argghh !!!
From UK-fan
- Hannu
I have approximately 85 liters of distilled water, and I added a full gallon (3.74) of RV anti-freeze to it. It does have a pinkish hue .. I only see the pink when the tubing is up against the something light in contrast, but in the mid-air view its' hardly visible.
tdiaz,
Thank's for your info also. I was just wondering if there is any effect to use
colored antifreeze vs clear. It is difficult to find clear glycol but colored you
can find from everywhere. I think that the pharmacy could be the right place
for the clear one...
Best regards
- Hannu
Be aware that antifreeze is toxic- causes liver and kidney damage and can kill you, also cats and dogs are attracted to it because it smells nice to them, it'll kill them even quicker. Just a word of advice in case you leave any lying about and have a cat or dog in your shop!
I didn't use the laser for about 2 weeks and when I returned, I just happened to look inside the reservoir and the return line looked suspicious to me, it had a coating of growth on it. The whole inside was slimy. I'm guessing I need to change the water about every 8 weeks.
There has to be a better way to do this. I have clear hose for about 4 feet because I want to see whats inside, flowing. If there's any bubbles. The reservoir is black, and the whole thing is out of the way, no direct sunlight ever hits it, there's only one window and it's even mostly blocked.
So I filled it on April 20th or so, and on August 1st, I noticed it turned to slime. It was 24 gallons of distilled water, and 1 gallon of RV Antifreeze.
I dumped in half a gallon of bleach and a huge bottle of listerine, and ran it for about half an hour before emptying it. The growth on the return line was wiped out and gone after that. I suspect it's just going to come back. Is there anything wrong with putting a chlorine tablet in the water?
Hi Tdiaz,
I don't understand - my laser cooling water has been in my tank for over twelve months now and I only checked it yesterday and it is still crystal clear, as is my spindle coolant water that has been there even longer and is exposed to some light.
Could it be that your water is not pure enough before you start or maybe the container is not clean either?
Mike
When to speak about milling machine then I use the same coolant mix for Spindle as for milling by the same pump and at the same time.
I do use special coolant oil mixed with tap water.
*Used coolant, when milling process, goes to Collector tank (plastic tub) through robust filter (cheesecloth) left all chips and grindings -> *Fine Filter (common home RL-SX washable polyester filter - 50 microns) -> *Coolant Tank 20L -> *Coolant Pump 12V -> *Spindle -> *Coolant nozzle.
Filtered clean coolant goes at first to Spindle and then from spindle to coolant Nozzle(s) :cool:
I have second pump as well - for to wash and clean machine and milled parts with simple gun. This is also very good, machine keeped clean, dirt and chips washed away in to collector tank.
Fine filter I do wash once in month when milling aluminium, when to mill these expensive beige color prototyping and moulding materials, then even every day ... it takes 5...10 minutes to wash. Congregated metal chips from first tank I take away when it is full (ca 40L), cheesecloth need to be washed-cleaned only when mentioned prototyping and moulding materials have been hardly milled :mad:
Of course this is not for Lasers but for me and for my mill this system is the best solution, using near two years. Coolant never went to pong, perhaps this is because I use only special oils for coolant mix, or fine filter helps :rolleyes:
Cheers,
Herbert
Hi I use clear water with a little anti-freeze in it.
I noticed that after a couple of months the algae sometimes started to slime up the water.
I have found the simplest yet 100% effective method to solve this problem, There is just one thing algae don't survive and that's UV light.
I have a koi pond and am using uv light to prevent algae there so i installed a small 11 watt UV algae killer in the return waterline since then i have seen no algae or other slimy stuff in the water, it's as clear as the day i filled it up.
They sell those uv-lights for less then $75 in the pond shops
Happy lasering!!
How bottled drinking WATER we can buy from shops - how it stay years fresh and clear?
I have thought about, seems there is added very small amount of E210 (benzoic acid - C6H5COOH ), this is natural produk, made from gum of Styrax Benzoin, tree from Southeast Asia.
Perhaps when destilled water does not help, then small amount of benzoic acid does :idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzoic_acid
Myself I prefer to try with alcohol. I do not drink, because no problem for me to add bottle of spirit in to Laser cooling. Or few bottles of Vodka :cool:
Cheers,
Herbert
Benzoic acid has good anti-microbial features, but because it does not dissolve well in water, sodium benzoate is often used,
because in acidic solutions it converts to benzoic acid, and sodium benzoate dissolves very well in water.
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/benzoic_acid.html
anyone ever tried a very thin mineral oil in their system? will a normal water pump move it?
This is what they use in large power transformers etc, but I think they rely on convection to move the oil around...
Ash
I wonder if the tube itself gives off UV in use ?.Quote:
I have found the simplest yet 100% effective method to solve this problem, There is just one thing algae don't survive and that's UV light.
Tweakie.
The lasertube may give out a bit of UV, but i'm not sure if it's the kind of UV that will kill the algae.
If i understand it correct it's very important for clear water to use the right type of UV-tube in the algea-killer
....
I used a pressure washer and blasted the inside of the sump out, and added some algaecide to 22 gallons of new distilled water. I left out the RV antifreeze for the moment.
I also got a new water pump, a bit quieter and uses 45 watts instead of 600 watts because after 4-5 hours the water would be fairly warm with just the pump running, so I'm running the 45W pump now for the rest of the night and see what the water is like. I suspect I won't notice anything, but all the bubbles should be out of the system.
of course 600W is too heroics, far beyond any needs, good perhaps for 5kW and up laser.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pump-water-laser...70?pt=BI_Pumps
http://cgi.ebay.com/7L-12V-CNC-Spind...17?pt=BI_Pumps
http://cgi.ebay.com/12V-DC-CPU-Cooli...96?pt=BI_Pumps
This last one I use years for 1kW Spindle cooling, often works 24h every day.
Is it really brushless or just "brushless" ... dont know, but this is good pump.
12V, Current: 650mA, Water height (approximate): 3.5m, Capacity: 420 liters per hour.
And this is quiet!
Regards,
Herbert
Tdiaz,Quote:
Originally Posted by tdiaz
My situation is the same than yours - slimy coating on the water ! But I blame our weather which has been exceptional - really warm and moisty !
I'm going to add the stuff what they use in water beds to avoid algae and also install additional mixer what will mix water while laser is out off duty.
Just testing...
Regards
- Hannu