I was looking at the cheap Chinese water pump that came with my spindle and it looks like the actual impeller is missing. I wasn’t really in love with using such a cheap pump knowing that when it dies the spindle could be damaged. My plan was to add a flow switch to stop the 1F and turn off the spindle (which I still may do) but now that the pump is junk I have a choice.
I could get a replacement pump in exchange for the junk one but still have a cheap pump. I could get a better quality of pump, maybe a magnetically coupled pump from a brand name like Little Giant, but finding one with the same specs seems to be a little difficult. But I have a feeling that those Chinese pumps are more a case of optimism than fact. Plus I think the 1/4" hose is going to restrict flow. I don’t think I want to go with a chiller as it’ll just use more energy and the non Chinese brands are not cheap.
Does anyone have an idea what the actual cooling flow is? Is anyone using a brand name pump?
I used the pump that came with the 1.5wk spindle kit. I tested it at one point and it filled a 5 gallon bucket of water in about 3 minutes on a level surface through about 10 feet of 8mm OD tubing that came with it (I don’t know the ID of the tubing - around 7mm). The inlet and outlet temp from the spindle is rarely ever more than a 1 degree F higher than the inlet temperature which I would presume means there is enough flow.
I have an unused one I could ship you for $10+ shipping. I bought the huanyang 2.2/220volt which i believe the unit uses.
But what i did was buy a small 2 fan radiator/ 2 fans/ pump/reservoir/Flowmeter for pc cooling. Its a closed loop and supposedly its more then enough heat rejection to keep the spindle cool.
Cost was about $125
I bought an American made Danner pump that should work off of Amazon. The flow is similar to the Chinese one yet uses less power. It’s magnetically coupled pump so there’s no seal to fail. I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible so if I decide down the road that something isn’t working I don’t feel stuck with it. I can see where a closed loop system would be nice.
I haven’t got it yet so I can’t confirm it. I got a Danner model 7 (700 GPH) pump. It’s slightly less flow than the Chinese pump but pretty close. It doesn’t have a screen on the intake but it’s just going to be submerged in a bucket of clean water/ glycol so it shouldn’t matter. Getting replacement parts is easy vs the throw away import. The head was also very similar so it should be a good replacement. I have a inline flow gauge/ switch so once I have it I’ll plumb it and see just how much flow it puts out.
I connected the pump up today to the spindle. I placed the spindle about 5’ off of the floor while the bucket with the pump in it was on the floor. As you can see the flow is a little over .4 GPM or around 26 GPH. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see the actual flow coming out of the hose. I didn’t bother using any teflon tape where the barbed fitting mounts to the pump so there could be some minor leaking going on but with the pump being underwater you can’t tell so it’s possible I could get a little more flow out of it but I think that there’s more than enough flow to keep the spindle cool.
After looking around I found several sites selling 3hp spindles that say 20 to 26 GPH is required for cooling.
If I read the specs given for this pond pump it has 1/2" NPT ports which you have reduced down to a barb fitting for 8mm tubing I believe. That seems like it would restrict flow considerably.
Is there any danger of damaging the pump because of the increased head pressure? I don’t know anything about how these pond pumps are designed and if they can handle a partial blockage or other flow restriction on the discharge.
If you increased the tubing ID and reduced to the required size directly at the spindle your flow rate should improve.
So far it’s worked just fine. The biggest restriction is the fittings on the spindle itself. I’m using slightly oversized tubing (1/4" ID) because what came with the spindle was too short and 5mm ID hose isn’t easy to get. The flow is a little over .2 GMP which keeps the spindle slightly warm but much cooler than what a fan cooled motor, like the trim router would run at. I’m sure if I got a pump with higher pressure I could get more flow but I don’t think it’s needed.
Thanks, I don’t have my Journeyman yet but already anticipating I will want to change over to a water cooled spindle for the reduced noise, more power, and variable speed control. I bought a Makita router but not sure I’m going to like it. For the beginning it will keep things simpler while I learn the basics and no doubt it will take me some time to outgrow.
