6040 Spindle Coolant

[xoneeleven]

Hello All,
I am completely new to CNC (my background is enterprise network management).
So, please be patient and gentle!

Here goes...

I just setup a 6040z machine, and did not want to put water into the spindle; someone else advised me to not do this.
So, I had some RV antifreeze solution and decided to run that through the spindle. It says it is non-corrosive.

Will the RV coolant do the trick without destroying the spindle?
(or)
Is there something else that I should be using, instead?

Thanks in advance...

Mark

[Boyan Silyavski]

I dont know what you mean by Rv antifreeze, but i run with car antifreeze, the strongest one pink in color up to -45C, undiluted from a couple of years and o problem. The Ethylene glycol it contains definitely cools better than pure water. Just remember not to put tap water into it if you dilute or run it on water,. use only distilled water.

We are talking about water cooled spindle right? Not an air cooled one i hope

[cropwell]

We are talking about water cooled spindle right? Not an air cooled one i hope

For an air cooled spindle you should use VW Beetle antifreeze

[Fred]

What's the problem with tap water? Not that I've, errrr, done that or anything.

[Boyan Silyavski]

What's the problem with tap water? Not that I've, errrr, done that or anything.

[magicniner]

Tap water will inevitably have some mineral content and the minerals can be deposited on internal surfaces making heat transfer less efficient.

[komatias]

RV antifreeze is fine. In fact it is better than deioinised water on its own.

[xoneeleven]

RV antifreeze is fine. In fact it is better than deioinised water on its own.

Thanks...
I thought it would be safe to use, since it is safe in RV lines. We did add a small amount of filtered water to mix it.

It appears to be working fine so far.