upgraded pond pump to Vevor CW-5202 to support near future Laser and Current CNC spindle, is laser coolant good for both systems ? There is only one tank to feed both systems and i plan on using laser coolant which will flow to the CNC Spindle?
I would not advise doing that.
Reason being the cold coolant that is being output to support the laser is too much for the spindle.
The immediate concern is volume of water, but that’s not for the spindle its for the laser.
Next, these motors are not meant to run that cold, hence “warm up process”. It’s warming the grease to get it to a working viscosity. Same (but not as extreme) as starting your car and immediately flooring it in the middle of a snowy winter.
Finally, condensation. Condensation is bound to lead to rust, and rust in places you won’t see but notice with degraded performance. That’s long term exposure though.
Knowing all this, I would (and still use) the pump
Hi Chris, i guess that explains why I only found one write up for using on both laser and CNC, more than likely the CNC was industrial. Well, I still need the chiller in a few months when i purchase the laser. so now I need to figure out how to use with CNC spindle in between time frames if possible. I can fill tank with distilled water and run the chiller with constant temp setting say between 25 and 30 C if that makes sense. it has been between 85 and 97 degrees F in my garage for the past 3 weeks or so, not sure what temp water needs to be to sustain spindle temp below 40 C.but can figure out. So, distilled water and constant temp setting on chiller do you think that would be safe ? I can loop around the second port on chiller.
Forgot to mention I want this type of unit for the alerting, the pond solution i do know there are flow meters but a hassle to get an alarm ( saw one for the masso). The cost difference between single and double port Chiller i can eat easy !
The cw3000 has passive cooling (no temp control) but is perfectly sufficient.
The problem with straight distilled water is that it’s just water. The problem with water is that it will heat up faster than any of the Cooling options. Water has a higher therm carrying capacity, which means it’ll heat up faster. Since it gets recycled, it will only get warmer as time goes on without outside cooling factors.
I do think your target temps are good, and i like to think of it as being the temp of pool water.
Hi Chris, that CW-3000 definitely seems to be the choice amongst CNC spindle users. I will revisit that after I get the Laser system. I will also look at other cooling liquids to use , doesn’t seem to be any favorites amongst the articles so looks like any in that list you provided will suffice. Thanks again Chris for your guidance on these matters !
To be clear, im not recommending using a shared chiller for both the spindle and laser.
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Clear as day, any decision i make on a solution is mine alone.
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If you plan on purchasing/using a CO2 laser, it is not recommended to use anything in the chiller than distilled water, unless you live in northern climates and then only a minor bit of 50/50 antifreeze mixed in with the distilled water.
I, typically, put about 2 tablespoons of bleach in mine to discourage mold/algae growth and have had no issues in the past 3 years of use.
Not sure if you’ve done any homework, but from experience, the CW-3 series cooler is a passive chiller, which just uses the process of passing air over aluminum fins surrounding a liquid filled tube to cool the spindle or laser. The CW-5 series is an active chiller which uses a refrigerant and the complete gas/ orifice process of chilling the liquid in the chiller. I’ve used both on my lasers and the CW-5 series can keep the water temp a specific temperature, regardless of atmospheric temperature, where the CW-3 you will see a slight increase in coolant temp if you’re in a space that isn’t temperature controlled.
TLDR: CW-3 series is great for a spindle, CW-5 series is great for lasers
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Thank you Jeremiah, yes i am using distilled water.
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