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IndustryArena Forum > CNC Electronics > Spindles / VFD > Water cooled Chinese Spindle - air leak
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    267

    Water cooled Chinese Spindle - air leak

    Got my 2.2kW spindle all plumbed in and wired up. She works just great. The only think that baffles me is an air leak at the spindle. No matter how much I bleed it (did it 5 times), as soon as the pump is turned off, up come the bubbles.

    Get this - it does not leak any fluid when the pump is on.

    Anyone have this problem?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    78
    I can't answer your question but I have a question for you. Do you run any kind of corrosion inhibitor such as anti-freeze in your cooling water?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    31

    spindle

    I am considering buying one of these spindles and would be interested in your experience. What are you cutting with it and is it truly significantly quieter.
    Thank you!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    267
    Hey guys, I would be happy to answer your questions in another thread. I am pretty keen on getting this air leak problem solved and would like to keep this on topic.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    78
    Can you elaborate on exactly where the bubbles are showing up?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    35538
    Is the air trapped in the spindle perhaps?
    Gerry

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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    267
    Quote Originally Posted by ger21 View Post
    Is the air trapped in the spindle perhaps?
    Quite possible, I was thinking the same, so I put the spindle down low and all the gear up high to get any air out. Then I would move the spindle in other various positions to see if I could get an trapped air out. Unfortuneatley it does not list inlet our outlet.

    I will say, that it is keeping cool, not warming up at all, so something is working...

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    267
    Well I simplified the whole setup and rebuilt it. Now the system is simply a 5 gal pail of coolant, submersible pump and the hoses running to the spindle. As per a suggestion I turned down the flow through the spindle. I bleed the spindle by rolling it around the table when the pump was on, that seemed to help quite a bit.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    78
    Are you not concerned that the spindle bearings have become contaminated with coolant? I may be a little confused about "air leak at the spindle". Where were you seeing the bubbles? In the coolant tank or at the spindle nose?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    267
    No, I am not concerned about coolant contaminating the bearings. What else would you put in there?

    "air leak at the spindle" - air bubbles at the spindle inlet line.

    Mute point, all is fine now.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    78
    Sorry, I thought maybe you were seeing bubbles at the spindle nose. That might have indicated some porosity in the housing casting letting coolant get thru the water jacket and into the bearings. That would not be a good thing

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    628
    When I first installed my spindle, I overtightened the compression fittings and would see some air bubbles entering the tubing near the inlet/outlet - but no leaking at all. When I replaced the tubing, I didn't torque things quite as tight and I'm not seeing the bubbles the way I used to.

    Steve

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    267
    yep I was thinking exactly that last night when I put it together. Now that I have it running at lower pressure, I can be a little more gentle with those fittings. I think thats what my problem was.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    628
    I'm running a low cost, low pressure cooler as well. 5 gallon bucket, $12 (190 GPH) pump from Harbor Freight, and 50 ft of tubing (1/4" OD?). It's pretty small diameter stuff. I measured the flow and found it was only doing about 8 gal/hour. Somewhere I saw a recommendation for 20 gal/hour, but the spindle never seems to get warmer than about 72 degrees F. That includes some 2 hour jobs, but light cuts.

    Steve

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Posts
    6
    So I too have one of these spindles. 1.5kw little smaller. Works great. I heard somewhere that thought people were running these things to cool and the bearings were getting damaged. I know air cooled spindles have a warm up period and expect you to let it heat up to about 105 F before using, overwise you will take out the bearings.

    Can I assume the same should be true with the water cooled? I have a heater in a one gallon tank and leave a small pump running all the time. The spindle stays at 93 F and ready to go all the time without a warm up. I am not cutting heavy loads but the temp does rise to about 103F after a couple of hours.

    Do you have info on what they should run at?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    9
    How in the world did you plumb the thing and how in the world did you burp the lines. I'm considering drilling and tapping a hole in the top of the aluminum radiator tank so I can get all the trapped air out. What a mess water all over the table despite plastic and pans pulling Tygon on and off the barbs.

    Got any methods Pictures or videos? I'm sure I'm not the only guy running into this fill and burp issue.

    Here is my set up

    Thanks

    Edit: BTW: I bought a Antec 650 CPU cooler $72 at Fry's that has the copper CPU cooler attached to a aluminum bar for additional heat sink. The CPU cooler has a LED light that shows the temperature White is cold then light blue then blue then green then yellow then orange and finally red for danger overtemp. I have a Thermaltake Temp monitor to the left $7.90 off eBay.

    I used Rector Seal PTFE Teflon paste for the spindle water threads. I was told it was better than tape for liquids.

    The Orange rack is a Harbor Freight roll around Scaffold. The Router is a 2x4

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Posts
    1

    Re: Water cooled Chinese Spindle - air leak

    Hi, all my spindle is blocked water doesn't run anymore, how can I fix it? which kind of coolant should I use??
    Thanks in advance!

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    1723

    Re: Water cooled Chinese Spindle - air leak

    Analogman,

    I have been running a 4.5KW water cooled spindle for over 10 years with a pond pump from Home Depot and a 5 gallon bucket. When the pump first turns on I see bubbles in the line for about one minute and then as soon as the fluid start spilling in the bucket the air bubbles disappear. I use three parts of distilled water and 1 part high quality antifreeze for cars. This is just enough to avoid anything growing and change all the fluid and clean the entire unit once per year. Sometimes I get some black scum in the sides of the tank, which I can normally clean up with a paper towel. Might need to add for antifreeze, not sure if it mold or something. The fact that your spindle is not getting warmer than 72F says it is working, I wanted more flow in my unit, but even with slightly larger plastic tubing it did not improve things very much. The actually restriction is inside the spindle. If I attach a water line where I can have higher pressure then I can get better flow but I can't get that kind of pressure from a pond pump. Regardless the pond pump works just fine. The key is making sure your not getting any water leaks. Good Luck

    Russ

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