Pluged Water Cooled Spindle

[Ernie Martinez]

Has anyone dealt with a Chinese water cooled spindle that wont pass water. My new less than 3 month old Laguna IQ is raising it's ugly head again. Came in today, after being down since the holidays. Powered the machine up and plugged in the water pump, but no water is flowing. I verified that the pump is working, I reveresed the tubes several times, I disconnected the tubes to make sure the lines werent plugged. Everything seem fine. I'm figuring the spindle is plugged.

Has anyone un-clogged a Chiese spindle before?

Thanks

[Mike Heidrick]

I have never had a plugged spindle/coolant issue Ernie. Could you drain it fully, and test for the clog with some really light air blowing through it? You dont have one way valves do you anywhere?

After it is fixed, consider this. I use a flow indicator on my system (from a computer water cooling setup - think submerged waterwheel) to have visual reference everything is working. My system is closed loop and mounted on my X carriage.

[Ernie Martinez]

No check valves or anything. I used a compressor and blew the out of the spindle and was able to get water flowing again, but it's still very restrictive. The pump puts out a respectable head pressure, but there is a lot of resistance through the spindle. It's not overheating so I'm good for now.

A flow indicator is a good idea but I may just save for an air cooled HSD. This Laguna IQ keeps getting more an more expensive.

[Tom Malzacher]

Hi Ernie -

Do you have the pumps and water in an enclosed container - so no wood chips can suck through at all?
I would also disconnect the lines and blow them out along with the spindle - and maybe do it in reverse as well. It could be clogged
in one direction.

Tom

[Rick Went]

I'm having this problem right now. The spindle is nearly a year old and the flow has never really been impressive. We were down to blowing it clear every couple of days until we switched over to a radiator type coolant. Ran for a few weeks without any real change but this morning its plugged. In the past air blown through cleared it. Doesnt seem to want to clear now.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Mike Heidrick]

Not much help for the clog but I suggest folks use a sealed coolant system and computer/pc cooling coolant that wont grow anything to clog the system. Also install a flow indicator on the system.