Water-cooled spindle coolant solution

What do you guys use for your water cooled spindles?

Distilled Water
Water and Anti-freeze
Just Anti-Freeze
Other

Pros and Cons?

Distilled water - potentially corrosive
Water + anti-freeze/coolant (or premix) is the way to go, as it won’t be corrosive and won’t allow biological growth. The added benefit is it won’t freeze in the winter in an unheated space.

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Hey Don,

what my spindle manufacturer instructs. My spindle manual says:

The coolant used must be a special coolant that provides corrosion protection for non-ferrous metals, does not attack rubber seals and has the lowest possible electrical conductivity. Only use coolants offered by the manufacturer.

Therefore I use this

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MSDS for anyone wanting to know more about the coolant:

Scroll to find its composition.

Spoiler: Inhibited Glycol: that’s (mono)ethylene glycol + corrosion inhibitors (for steel, aluminum, copper, brass, etc.) + water

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I am in Canada, and found a supplier of Motorex products.
I purchased a bucket of their COOL-X.

TMToronto, can you please post a link to the Cool-X you chose to purchase. I went onto their site but was greeted by a bunch of products!

From memory, I believe I had contacted the company and asked for Canadian distributors/suppliers.
I ordered from Belmag in Quebec.
I purchased a 20L pail of COOL-X.

Hey all,

the main component is distilled water, which has nearly no electrical conductivity (under 2 µS/cm). There is a concentrated version available that you mix 1:2.

Ethylene glycol is what most people know as antifreeze and is what you put in the radiator of your car to prevent freezing and what is sprayed in tons per year on airplanes to deice them.

Since the corrosion inhibitor is not mentioned in the material safety data sheet, it’s probably based on Molybdic acid, Triazole and a substance that ensures a high (alkaline) pH value which require no declaration.

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Super helpful. Thank you!

50 - 50 water and automotive antifreeze.