[kevincnc]

You can get silicone ones from McMaster, but I think you'll need to see what size they are.

[Dbl_Tap]

Thanks, I was afraid I'd have to do that

[Dbl_Tap]

Well I bored the intake and outtake holes bigger so they are the same size as the holes running through the spindle jacket and the flow has definitely increased to the spindle but it is still pretty low flow in my opinion. I guess using a coolant will help with the heat vs water.

While I had it apart I grounded the 4th pin and replaced the O rings with the same kind of rubber rings I had in a kit that matched perfectly.

[Dylwad]

What pump are you using?

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[Dbl_Tap]

It's a submersible pond pump. The one my CNC came with is a 220 volt 3000 LPH rated and I thought it might be the culprit so I went and bought a 1000 gallon per hour one here locally. Bother sent out a pretty good stream of water through the 1/4" hose but the 3000 LPH one actually seems to flow better after comparing them tonight.

Since the holes in the spindle jacket for the water to flow are about 3/16" in diameter vs the 1/4" hose so there is some restriction there but I guess it is also possible there is something blocking inside the spindle jacket itself. I'm assuming if I fully disassemble the spindle I still won't be able to get better access to those water-ways and I also assume they aren't a straight shot through the spindle so trying to clear them out may be difficult.

[Dylwad]

I use a pump and radiator from a power Mac g5 and the flow is more than adequate, have only ever seen 5° above ambient on my 2.2 kw spindle. I have a swiftech pump as a back up. The powerful CPU pumps make more pressure than pond pumps with less flow, which is what you want with a restrictive system like a spindle and radiator with 20 odd feet of tubing.

There is no way to access the water jacket on the spindle.

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[Dbl_Tap]

What do you do for power for a PC pump? How big of a reservoir do you use?

[Dylwad]

What do you do for power for a PC pump? How big of a reservoir do you use?

A cheap 12 volt 3 amp switching wall wart type power supply that I picked up from parts express a while back for $3, and I believe the reservoir is a 750ml nalgene bottle from Mcmaster with a few holes drilled in the lid.



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[graemeian]

In regards to this type of spindle. I have a 1.5 KW spindle that I am attaching to a cat40 holder in my milling center. With my milling center spindle locked I will use this high speed drill.
Has anyone had an issue with cooling water. If I only need a liter a minute, I was considering putting water in a barrel and adding some cutting fluid solution. Afterwards, I could dump the coolant in machining center reservoir. Any thoughts...

[dodger889]

I would not think about using the water that is for cooling. Then use it for lubrication for the milling. For one thing you need to use an additive for corrosion control for aluminum.

[Dan Joss]

Has anybody ever opened up one of the Chinese spindles to see how the water circulates?
I have four of them (GDZ-17) and all four are not letting much water run through.
I’m a little cautious of taking them apart without knowing what I’m getting into.
I have looked through the threads that talk about inside the spindles but have yet to see the route the water circulates.
Does anybody know the size of the “O” rings on the top of the spindles?

[garagefela]

Hi, had to pull my spindle apart one time as it made a terrible sound when milling out a small pocket with a slot drill. It grabbed a bit then rattled and clattered, luckily I was able to shut it down rapidly.
I was able to move the spindle axially it was quite loose, obviously something had gone drastically wrong with the preload. I thought that the wave washers may have collapsed.
It turned out that due to the design of the top bearing and wave washer combination the outer race of the top bearing is supposed to freely slide inside the housing. That's how you get preload on the bearing pack and also allow for thermal expansion on the main shaft.
It turned out that my outer race was too tight in the housing and when the tool grabbed a bit it pulled the shaft down a bit with the top outer race and compressed the wave washers and stayed there. Obviously loose and rattling.

Took a bit of time to make a brass collet-type internal bearing puller to get the damn thing out. Buffing the bore fixed the issue nicely.
After assembly was able to pull on the shaft and have it move slightly and could feel the wave washers compress and have the shaft slide back.
Not as much preload as I would have thought though but they are high speed spindles.
Although no noticeable damage to any races the spindle is noisier on the top bearing, bugger!
Oh well, will closely monitor.

Ok back to why I replied, when my spindle was completely apart you can't go further than having the outer steel sleeve and the aluminium inner still joined. As said in a previous reply they may be shrunk together. I was not going to go to the trouble to possibly destroy them to satisfy my curiosity on the cooling chambers.
Although a shrink fit is no guarantee of water tightness I personally suspect the outer sleeve is essentially loctited or sealed/glued on to get that water tight ability.
Either the cores are a bit blocked or the holes are bit undersize right at the nipple. Drill out or blow the passages out with air is about all you can do.
As for the o rings, not sure of the size (sorry) but I did go to the I ring kit and choose ones that were ever slightly thicker. Probably just the difference between metric V imperial sizes. I also made sure the O ring faces were a smooth as possible.

I hope this helps you or someone else. Cheers M

ps, It would be great if someone had a dead spindle and to be able to turn off the outer sleeve and give us all a look at the inner cooling chambers. Just hope it's not going to be me!!!!

[Dan Joss]

Thanks for the help. I’m going to use a different fitting at the spindle and pump.
I know it will still have to squeeze down to circulate but maybe a larger volume of coolant getting to the spindle will push a bit more thru.
At this point the largest size tube I can use from the pump to the spindle is 6mm id.
I’ll let you know what happens.
If I burn up one of my spindles I’ll make sure everybody gets a look inside.

[jcarpenter2]

Hello all, I bought a 1.5kw water cooled spindle with matching VFD off ebay, but as i got ready to start making my connections i noticed the spindle only had three wire connections. The VFD receives 220 single phase and sends 220 three phase to the motor which tells me there should be four wires going to the spindle. I read through a few threads and this one seemed to be the better of the threads especially since it had pictures. I took the rear cap off which of course gives access to the o-rings for the water, plus it had a silicone sealant around the o-rings to help with keeping water out of the winding's. The electrical connector is only a three pin configuration (which i knew) and the end cap is made of aluminum. Now to the question. Why only three wires? Isn't this an unsafe practice not to have a ground? Should i replace the three prong connector with a four prong connector and add a ground under the aluminum cap? This seems like the solution to me but i am completely at a loss as to why a manufacturer would not have a ground, maybe i am missing something that someone here can help clarify.

[ger21]

i am completely at a loss as to why a manufacturer would not have a ground, maybe i am missing something that someone here can help clarify.

Because it's China and they're making them as cheap as they can.

A lot of members here have added a ground terminal to the bottom side of the top cap. See the 3rd pic in post #6 above.

[mactec54]

Hello all, I bought a 1.5kw water cooled spindle with matching VFD off ebay, but as i got ready to start making my connections i noticed the spindle only had three wire connections. The VFD receives 220 single phase and sends 220 three phase to the motor which tells me there should be four wires going to the spindle. I read through a few threads and this one seemed to be the better of the threads especially since it had pictures. I took the rear cap off which of course gives access to the o-rings for the water, plus it had a silicone sealant around the o-rings to help with keeping water out of the winding's. The electrical connector is only a three pin configuration (which i knew) and the end cap is made of aluminum. Now to the question. Why only three wires? Isn't this an unsafe practice not to have a ground? Should i replace the three prong connector with a four prong connector and add a ground under the aluminum cap? This seems like the solution to me but i am completely at a loss as to why a manufacturer would not have a ground, maybe i am missing something that someone here can help clarify.

You must have a really bad manufactured spindle, first they hardly ever add silicone sealant to the O'rings, which can be a bad thing, and having only a 3 pin connector, I have not seen one with a 3 pin connector before, they are normally a 4 pin connector, with the Ground not making a good contact, so most just add the Ground wire to the 4th pin, to correct the Ground problem

In your case with only having the 3 pin connector, you could add the Ground to the outside of the cap, But if you need a layer of silicone between the cap and the spindle body, then you may not get a very good Ground

Check that the O'ring pockets are not to deep for the O'rings you have, if you have .015 or more of crush then you should not need the silicone, just use a light coating of O'ring Grease

[jcarpenter2]

Well it took longer than i thought, but i did replace the 3 pin round connector with a 4 pin round connector on my spindle. Removed the paint on the inside of the end cap and added a ground connection. O-rings look good so i added oring lube (great suggestion mactec54, as i forgot i even had some o-ring lube from when i converted my pool to salt water this past spring). After reassembly i did a continuity test and got good sound from the case. All three "hot" wires gave me good sound to so i guess i didnt screw it up. It was my intent to run my 220 line today but i guess ill have to wait until tomorrow now, then i can do a trial run with the vfd.

[mactec54]

Well it took longer than i thought, but i did replace the 3 pin round connector with a 4 pin round connector on my spindle. Removed the paint on the inside of the end cap and added a ground connection. O-rings look good so i added oring lube (great suggestion mactec54, as i forgot i even had some o-ring lube from when i converted my pool to salt water this past spring). After reassembly i did a continuity test and got good sound from the case. All three "hot" wires gave me good sound to so i guess i didnt screw it up. It was my intent to run my 220 line today but i guess ill have to wait until tomorrow now, then i can do a trial run with the vfd.

Just remember the Parameter setting is just as important as the wiring, one wrong setting can ruin your day

[jcarpenter2]

I bought the 1.5kw water cooled spindle and the "matching" inverter together. Doesnt "matching" inverter mean the parameters are already set for that specific spindle? The bad thing about the inverter is it is an ASKPOWER A131 and i have found zero info here on the cnczone about it so i have been unable to make heads or tails of the majority of the ports and the configuration parameters.

[mactec54]

I bought the 1.5kw water cooled spindle and the "matching" inverter together. Doesnt "matching" inverter mean the parameters are already set for that specific spindle? The bad thing about the inverter is it is an ASKPOWER A131 and i have found zero info here on the cnczone about it so i have been unable to make heads or tails of the majority of the ports and the configuration parameters.

No it won't come with set Parameters, they will be a factory default, which is normally set for a 50Hz/60Hz motor, not a 400Hz spindle motor like what you have, there seems to be a new named VFD Drive every week
this is bad news,as it hard to keep up with all the different VFD drives, post the spec's of the VFD I may have something on it