For those of you with Water Cooled Spindles - where/how do you run your water lines from the router to the chiller or tub of coolant? do you run them in your drag chain or with the dust collection hose?
With my Woodworker, I initially had mine set up to hang with the dust collection hose and then changed to drag chains. Reason was mostly for aesthetics. Now I have my spindle cable, water lines, and Z/X cables in a 15x30 drag chain. It’s a fairly snug fit and 15x40 would be better. My laser cables are zip tied to the outside of the drag chain. Much cleaner look with the drag chains.
With the tubing routed along the DC hose, 10ft was barely enough. 10ft was not enough to run through the drag chains…needed more like 15ft. My bucket is under the table on the left side, close to where the tubes exit the drag chain. If you had the bucket/chiller on the right side of the table, you’d need even more tubing.
2 Likes
Josh,
Thank you for that picture and info - I guess I am going to look at my drag chain to see if I will have enough room. My hoses I believe are like 25’ each so I think I have some room to spare.
I believe in the drag chain they will be better protected - as my 4" dust collection hose will kinda be swinging all over the place
Josh do you have another picture on how you have your dust collection hose mounted above?
2 Likes
Here’s another one with drag chains.
Table is 48"x48"
Drag chains are 18x50mm
The spindle power, cooling lines, laser control and Z control are in drag chains (power cable to spindle is double shielded with ground and drain back to earth ground)
Cooling container made from Plexiglas and in bottom of cart
This is all of it. You can see the tubing at the bottom coming from the container
This is from the back so you can see the Y axis drag chain
This is the water storage (Cart is flipped up ready for storage against the wall)
2 Likes
Very nice setup - can you provide where you purchase the hoses and the connectors (as well as size) those look beefy and nice
The hose is on a swing arm that is mounted to my dust collection enclosure. Not the greatest position as it turns out because the hose kept getting caught on the spindle/water lines where they come off the spindle. I had to rig up a bungee cord to make the arm swing up to the front of the machine when the gantry moved up to the front of the table. It works fine now but I made change it later.
1 Like
Howdy Paul!
I wanted the hose to be durable yet very flexible. You’re not going to believe this but I wound up buying air hose from Home Depot, Husky 3/8" Hybrid hose. The fittings are simple brass fittings from HD as well. I’m a licensed journeyman plumber so I’m confident the hoses will last a long time. Also it was much cheaper and better then just buying 3/8" hose by the foot, which generally isn’t flexible.
I went with 3/8” to help remove as much pipe restriction as possible so that the system runs as low as pressure needed, without getting carried away such as using 1/2" or larger. The lower the pressure, the lower the stress on everything. The pump is from Amazon, Vivosun, and works great. I also added a small flow meter from Amazon to make sure I always had flow.
The water tank is made from 1/4” plexiglass (.221") because I didn’t want a bucket lying around that I would eventually kick over due to my typical clumsiness. But I do admit that making my own “fish tank” added about $80. I still think it’s worth it.
One last item; everything is opaque in color, even the fish tank is black, because I do not want light hitting the water. Sunlight promotes bacterial growth so I tried to eliminate as much as possible. The liquid is 2 gallons of distilled water with roughly 8 ounces of 50/50 antifreeze. I don’t have feeezing issues but the antifreeze also offers good corrosion protection. NEVER use DI or distilled water by itself. It’s very destruction to anything other then stainless steel.
If there is anything I can do to help you build your system and be blessed, don’t hesitate to ask. 
God bless!
1 Like
Did I answer this question when it was actually meant for Paul? If so, I’m sorry Paul.