# Tubing for water-cooled spindle



## 01f4irider (Sep 9, 2017)

I need to know what type of tubing to buy for cooling the water-cooled spindle I have ordered. I contacted Probotix and they told I need 1/4"ID 5/16"OD with 1/32" wall thickness. What I need is recommendations for what material type I should be looking for. Thanks in advance for any replies.


----------



## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

good choice...
PVC Hose & Tubing


----------



## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

I used silicone tubing - Silicone tubing - OD 7mm ID 5mm. It has worked fine for the last year or so.

David


----------



## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

01f4irider said:


> I need to know what type of tubing to buy for cooling the water-cooled spindle I have ordered. I contacted Probotix and they told I need 1/4"ID 5/16"OD with 1/32" wall thickness. What I need is recommendations for what material type I should be looking for. Thanks in advance for any replies.


Let me get it straight. You asked what size of tubing you need, but did not ask what type of tubing was recommended? I would get back to the company on that.


----------



## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

JOAT said:


> Let me get it straight. You asked what size of tubing you need, but did not ask what type of tubing was recommended? I would get back to the company on that.


Theo it's more fun to ask that question here. Besides this is (his or hers) first post.

By the way Rider welcome to the forum.


----------



## 01f4irider (Sep 9, 2017)

hawkeye10 said:


> By the way Rider welcome to the forum.


Thank you


----------



## MoHawk (Dec 8, 2013)

I don't know how many feet of tubing you need however here is what I used on my 2.2kW water cooled spindle.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013WZVKK8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


----------



## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Ditto the welcome, Rider! I didn't notice it was your first visit when I commented.

David


----------



## EllaParker (10 mo ago)

You can buy Custom Heat Shrink Tubing. (advertising link removed by moderator)
Heat shrink tubing is a durable thermoplastic tubing that is designed to shrink in size when placed around wires or cables and then heated. As an alternative solution to taping or molding wires togethers, the heat shrink tubing works as an organizer or labeler for clusters of wires. It also acts as an insulator and added layer of protection from external elements.


----------



## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

You may be a few days late to the party ^^^


----------



## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Welcome to the forum @EllaParker


----------



## trikesrcool (10 mo ago)

I'm going to rekindle this thread. I have a 1.5KW water cooled spindle and I use 1/4" ID x 3/8" OD vinyl hose for coolant flow. Both the hot and cold hose route along my wires in both X and Y axis inside my drag chain. The smallest radius bend is ~4-5". I am going to place a tank underneath my router table and have already purchased a submersible pump. However, I noticed that just blowing into each of the tubes requires a lot of pressure. What type of pump is preferred? Thanks guys!


----------



## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

trikesrcool said:


> I'm going to rekindle this thread. I have a 1.5KW water cooled spindle and I use 1/4" ID x 3/8" OD vinyl hose for coolant flow. Both the hot and cold hose route along my wires in both X and Y axis inside my drag chain. The smallest radius bend is ~4-5". I am going to place a tank underneath my router table and have already purchased a submersible pump. However, I noticed that just blowing into each of the tubes requires a lot of pressure. What type of pump is preferred? Thanks guys!


Try an aquarium store or supply on internet. I think you can get all power levels in that kind of pump, and they are designed for very long life. Some are submersible but not all. You can also get inline filters, but you might want to find some chemical that isn't harmful to the pump, tubing or spindles cooling system, but will suppress algae. For long runs, that fluid is going to gradually warm up.


----------



## trikesrcool (10 mo ago)

DesertRatTom said:


> Try an aquarium store or supply on internet. I think you can get all power levels in that kind of pump, and they are designed for very long life. Some are submersible but not all. You can also get inline filters, but you might want to find some chemical that isn't harmful to the pump, tubing or spindles cooling system, but will suppress algae. For long runs, that fluid is going to gradually warm up.


Thanks Tom!


----------



## trikesrcool (10 mo ago)

While doing my research, which I admit is hindsight, I discovered that I need a high-pressure, low-volume submersible pump. The pump I chose initially which was recommended by another DIY CNC Router, was basically a pond pump which has an impressive 9.1 gallons per minute (34.5 L/min) flow rate, but has only a lift of 5 ft (1.5m). The link to this pump is below: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017R708QO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Now that I know the requirements of the pump I need, I discovered a 12V pump that had a flow rate of 3.7 gal/min (14L/min), but a lift of 16ft (5m)! I feel really safe that my submersible is a 12V device and not a lethal 115VAC. Here is a link to it:








Northbear-12v submersible pump, 1.2A DC low-noise miniature water pump, with 1.5m cable, 5M head 14L/Min, 600L/H, 6-15V, suitable for fluid tap water, groundwater, seawater, sewage transfer pump 1 - - Amazon.com


Northbear-12v submersible pump, 1.2A DC low-noise miniature water pump, with 1.5m cable, 5M head 14L/Min, 600L/H, 6-15V, suitable for fluid tap water, groundwater, seawater, sewage transfer pump 1 - - Amazon.com



www.amazon.com




I should have it in my hot hands by Wednesday. 

Regards,
Rick


----------



## trikesrcool (10 mo ago)

As some of you recall from my last post (#15), I purchased a 12V submersible water pump. This pump provides excellent pressure. On the negative side, it needs to be mounted vertically to the bottom of a container and although submersed it is still noisy. For the vertical mounting I designed a pump mount that keeps it stable. For a container I chose a 5-gallon bucket with a matching lid and made three holes for the water input, output, and DC power. Each hole was enlarged to accommodate a rubber grommet. On my CNC controller box, I replaced my SS AC relay with a SS DC relay so I can turn on cooling when the spindle is energized. After I got it running, I was very pleased by the amount of flow. However, I don't think this pump has the reliability that the AC pond pump offers and including a coolant alarm wouldn't be a bad idea. I gave it some thought and decided to add a water flow meter that produces a pulse tachometer output. I designed a circuit that converts the pulses from the flow meter output to a DC voltage using a charge pump. The output from the charge pump drives a transistor so that when the pump stops it drives an LED (Coolant Alarm) to illuminate. I have the circuit debugged and it is now running on a breadboard. Below is the vertical bracket for the pump:








The schematic for the alarm is shown below:








Some key features are C1 which prevents a stalled high tach signal from charging the pump. D1 and D2 are used to rectify the pulses into pulsating DC, while C2 converts the signal into smooth DC. When the charge goes high, the voltage at the collector of Q1 goes low preventing the LED from illuminating. However, when the pulses stop, the voltage drops allowing the collector to go high, hence drive the LED on.
The flow meter is shown below:








These meters are available on Amazon for $8.30 ea.

Regards,

Rick


----------

