Spindle cooling with PC Liquid cooling system


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    Default Spindle cooling with PC Liquid cooling system

    As im building my CNC im trying to come up with ways to add in as many features as possible without needing allot of complex equipment. One feature I want is a blower to clear out the tool path as it cuts. I really don't want to fire up the air compressor every time I want to run the CNC so I thought, How about building a shroud that utilized the air blown off the router by the armature fins and channel that through a flexible tube and have that as my air supply for clearing the tool path. Sounds great but im sure this will cause the router to heat up much faster and cause premature failure. Then I thought this could easily be fixed by using a PC liquid cooling system to circulate water around the spindle. Again, sounds great but is this only in theory? Anyone attempted doing any spindle cooling with a non commercial liquid cooling system?

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    I think the greatest cooling factor is air rushing through the armature of the motor. Restricting this in any manner sounds like a bad idea to me. Correct me if I'm wrong but your idea is to attach liquid cooling heatsink to the router casing? If so I don't think this would make a significant difference but I'm interesting to hear what others have to say.

    Not sure what you are cutting or your build either. Wouldn't hurt to know the specs you are dealing with.



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    I actually have a few pcb router spindles that use liquid cooling jackets to keep cool. This is a really good approach, but works because the motors (frameless synchronous type) and enclosure have been designed with this in mind.

    Depending on how your router is designed, you might have quite a lot of thermal resistance between the coils and the outer surface (where you can easily add heat exchangers).

    Another option to PC water cooling is to use a water chiller unit, such as those used with aquariums. These can drop the fluid temp to way below ambient.



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    Quote Originally Posted by jckstrthmghty View Post
    I think the greatest cooling factor is air rushing through the armature of the motor. Restricting this in any manner sounds like a bad idea to me. Correct me if I'm wrong but your idea is to attach liquid cooling heatsink to the router casing? If so I don't think this would make a significant difference but I'm interesting to hear what others have to say.

    Not sure what you are cutting or your build either. Wouldn't hurt to know the specs you are dealing with.
    Oh absolutely its a bad idea.... unless it can be cooled efficiently by some other means



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    How about building a shroud that utilized the air blown off the router by the armature fins and channel that through a flexible tube and have that as my air supply for clearing the tool path.
    I don't think it would be enough air to clear chips and dust that get packed in the cut.

    Gerry

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    Quote Originally Posted by jckstrthmghty View Post
    I think the greatest cooling factor is air rushing through the armature of the motor. Restricting this in any manner sounds like a bad idea to me. Correct me if I'm wrong but your idea is to attach liquid cooling heatsink to the router casing? If so I don't think this would make a significant difference but I'm interesting to hear what others have to say.

    Not sure what you are cutting or your build either. Wouldn't hurt to know the specs you are dealing with.
    No, the idea isn't just to bolt a water block to the outside of a motor designed for air cooling. The idea is to design with an appropriate motor to begin with! The best cooling approach is to have the working fluid (air/water) as close to the heat source (motor coils) as possible, so as to reduce the thermal resistance.

    For a given power into the coil, the thermal resistance (degC/W) gives you the temperature rise of the coil above the temperature of the working fluid. If your thermal resistance is high, the coil can burn out even with good cooling.

    What I was hinting at was that water cooling makes sense if you have a PMSM motor, where the coils are in the stator and easily cooled, and is very difficult with a moving coil motor.

    You may find that adding a water jacket to the router along with the current air cooling may be enough to increase your duty cycle, it depends on the router design.

    Actually air sucks as a heat transfer fluid compared to almost everything else used, its just its cheap and easy to use.

    EDIT: why don't you just plumb your compressor in, and leave it on 24/7. That way if nothings using air, it will auto-off, and when you start running the machine it will switch on automatically?



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    This will _NEVER_ work. Motor cooling fans are low pressure and relatively low flow. To clear even foam "chips" you need high pressure and HIGH FLOW.

    You'd have better luck trying to move your sailboat with an onboard fan.

    Maybe in the cartoons, but not in real life...

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    Quote Originally Posted by mcphill View Post
    This will _NEVER_ work. Motor cooling fans are low pressure and relatively low flow. To clear even foam "chips" you need high pressure and HIGH FLOW.

    You'd have better luck trying to move your sailboat with an onboard fan.

    Maybe in the cartoons, but not in real life...
    Its been done!

    MythBusters: Blow Your Own Sail : Videos : Discovery Channel



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    Quote Originally Posted by enforcer View Post
    That's awesome but the real question is not whether you can or can not but whether the modifications meet the requirement. With unlimited budget you can do most anything but limited budget tends to be part of the requirement.
    If you goal is to tinker and come up with solutions for uncommon senarios all the power to you. In most cases it would save you a lot of time and effort to just do as daedalus mentioned and use a compressor. Keeping in mind the design and specs are unknown.



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    Quote Originally Posted by jckstrthmghty View Post

    Not sure what you are cutting or your build either. Wouldn't hurt to know the specs you are dealing with.
    Small benchtop unit. THK actuators, 80/20 constuction, and as many aluminum components as possible. 14x14 workspace. Planning on cutting nylon, plastics, very light aluminum. I intend to use a Makita rf1101 as the spindle.

    My original question was mostly theoretical, Although it seems all my power tools will blow whatever dust is available straight at my face when given the opportunity. Why not build it to clear the tool path



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Spindle cooling with PC Liquid cooling system

Spindle cooling with PC Liquid cooling system