I’m sure there is a slime build-up in my PwnCNC spindle, and I need to clean it out…suggestions are welcome. I’m using a water pump currently and will eventually upgrade to a chiller.
I’ve tried many solutions: distilled water, RV anti-freeze, windshield washer fluid, algae control and still fighting the battle. Hell, I tried mixing distilled water and our pool water at one time (worked the best so far). I plan to change the pump and install new lines tonight…fresh start!
I did some searching and found a few sites mentioning CL206 which is Chlorine Dioxide. Another site said bleach.
We haven’t conducted any tests with either, but look forward to hearing your experience.
I don’t know how much is needed of either. I imagine maybe only a couple of tablespoons of bleach.
We have a saltwater reef tank here that uses purified water to top the tank off as water evaporates. What I’ve found is algae will grow in the clear lines of the top off plumbing if it is exposed to light when the water just sits in the line for a period of time. I wrapped this line in a piece of the cheap wire loom (split loom) around the line to keep it dark. It has tremendously helped the problem but didn’t completely eliminate it. A UV sterilizer would eliminate the problem but that only works if water is flowing thru the sterilization chamber. You could try replacing the lines and completely cleaning out the pump and spindle and then wrap the lines to see if that slows the issue down.
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If you’re getting slime after adding RV antifreeze and/or bleach then something is wrong and extremely weird. Bacteria/algae can’t live in either. RV antifreeze is designed to be used to winterize. It contains addictives slime causing critters can’t live in. Same with chlorine bleach. Are you sure it’s not just traces of oils.
So after reading this post, I decided I’d better check my system because I haven’t ran it in probably two months. Sure enough, as soon as I turned on the chiller I immediately saw a bunch of dark brown water / sludge push out of the spindle. After it ran for a few seconds this went away, but I can also see some sludge build up right at the ports on the back of the chiller. I filled the chiller (new) with a mixture of about 80% distilled water and 20% RV antifreeze about four or five months ago. The machine is in a climate controlled basement, so not much natural light getting to it although there is some.
Now I’m concerned: Is there sludge inside my spindle and, if so, how can I clean it out? Should I just run pure RV antifreeze instead of the distilled water? I didn’t think distilled water would do this and figured if it did it would take a lot longer than just a couple months.
Sounds like that was your problem. Most rv antifreeze is already 50/50 which means your 1 gallon of rv antifreeze’s concentration rate was 10% which is a good lunch for algea.
If using the 50/50 rv antifreeze, don’t further dillute it.
Thank you… I will follow that advice. Do you see any harm in running some compressed air (low psi like maybe 30 or 40) through the tubes and spindle to hopefully blow any sludge out?
Thank you… I will follow that advice. Do you see any harm in running some compressed air (low psi like maybe 30 or 40) through the tubes and spindle to hopefully blow any sludge out?
I wouldn’t do that. Just run some water in one bucket, out to another. Dump, fill, and repeat
Ok… just thought I’d follow up here for anyone else having this issue… let you know what I did and we’ll see how it goes. I’m sure results will vary depending on how severe your issue is. Thanks to the OP, I discovered mine fairly early so it wasn’t too bad.
Following Chris’s advice, I disconnected the tubing from the chiller, and used a pump from one of my tile saws (I always dunk my tile saw pumps in a bucket of clean water and just keep refilling it as needed, so no tile ‘gunk’ in the pump… that’s important because you wouldn’t want to introduce foreign materials into the spindle, chiller pump etc.). Also, I suppose you could use the chiller pump, but I wasn’t sure how much crap was in the tank on that.
I put the tile saw pump in a bucket of clean water, hooked up one tube to it and let the other tube run into another bucket. Did this several times… in both directions (switched tubes).
Next, I drained the chiller and removed the cover. There is a top on the tank that can be removed as long as your careful. It has little locking tabs. Sure enough, quite a bit of gunk in the tank. So I cleaned all that up, and circulated clean water through the chiller. Emptied it one more time, and then filled with straight RV antifreeze.
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PWNCNC WC Spindle on 1F Foreman. I set up a plastic covered bin with two gallons of Rain-x windshield washer fluid February 2024 to cool the spindle. In Oct I added a Coolant Flow Alarm wired to the Masso. In November I started getting Masso alarms for no flow. It now happens every 2-3 weeks. Each time I have to blow the lines out with compressed air to return flow.
I see darker orange areas around each fitting that must be some sort of slime/bacteria. Time to switch to RV antifreeze.