> How about using a radiator like > https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Radiator-Water-Cooling-Cooler/dp/B079D > HJ91F/ which is intended to cool CPUs? It comes with mountings for > three 120mm muffin fans. >
I have a similar radiator for the laser, but the 80W laser produces approximately 800W of waste heat and I wanted to be able to use it all day. I think a radiator is needless expense and complexity for a small spindle motor. I have the 2.2 KW spindle on the larger CNC router and the coolant starts to become slightly warm after running it constantly for several hours. Given that the heat transfer rate out of the coolant tank increases as the coolant temperature increases, I doubt I could overheat the coolant system running it nonstop, even with a high temperature ambient environment. The spindle motor is probably too efficient for that to happen. If I wanted to run it full time and cooling did become an issue, I'd probably add a second five gallon cat litter bucket cooling tank (free) and another 4 gallons of RV antifreeze (US$10). If space was at a premium, I still wouldn't be tempted to use even the smaller single 120mm fan radiator to avoid adding more series plumbed coolant tanks. I'd be concerned about leaks and galvanic corrosion and a fan failure. I'd just get a 50 foot length of tubing and toss the coil on top of the machine enclosure to make a passive radiator. The thermal conductivity of plastic tubing is lousy, but it's easy and cheap to compensate with a lot of surface area, and I like the simplicity - just a longer piece of the tubing I'd already be using with no welded aluminum radiator, no fan, and nothing to leak or break. I wired my coolant pump into the machine power. The low power pump runs as long as the machine is powered. That seemed inherently safer and a lot easier than having the pump under software control. _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
