Clogged spindle cooling curcuit TIP

I'm sure there others out there who have or are going to run into the same problem I had.  In the spirit of sharing I'll give you my remedy which was much easier than I thought it would be.
Let me preface this by saying my 2.2 kw spindle was not allowing any flow through it from the cooling pump.  I tried blowing air through it, reaming the port and even acitic acid which didn't seem to do anything.  I was getting prepared to do a tear down which I really didn't want to get into.  I read everything I could on the net and as a last ditch effort I bought a quart of CLR descaler.  I managed to force some into circuit, shut the pump off, and left it over night.  Next morning I turned the pump on once more, not expecting anything to have changed.  To my great surprize the pump took off linke a race horse and started pumping out the CLR and all the crud it removed.  
The lesson here is that it was my fault for not using deionized water and using tap water.  Big mistake!
As I don't use the machine a lot I was always replenishing the system with tap water, about the worste thing you could do.

Recommendation.:  Use only DI water,  If possible make it a closed loop system.
Good Luck!

Most of the spindle manufacturers I've delt with recommend a 25% solution of some kind of antifreeze. Not so much to prevent freezing but for the additives for corrosion inhibition and pump seal lubrication that are included with them. While most don't specify an automotive product, they generally are not much different from standard car antifreeze. (Using straight tap water in most kinds of cooling systems is asking for trouble.)

Quite right. A 25% antifreeze solution is probably a good approach but I would suspect there is just so much chelating ability for that dilute a solution. Compound that with the likelyhood most people are going to replenish it with tap water, there in lies the big mistake.

Again your quite right. I guess my real focus was to give others a heads up on a possible fix without tearing it appart.

regards

I would strongly recommend against deionized (DI) water in any cooling system where you don't have the exact specifications of all materials in the loop (i.e. an off-the-shelf spindle cooling system).

DI water can be extremely corrosive to certain metals, plastics, and rubbers, especially at elevated temperatures.  I suspect most of the major components would be unaffected, but you can't verify what the MOC is for everything you can't see:

• o-rings & seals
• adhesives
• solder/braze
• hose & pump internal materials
• internal coatings in spindle

My recommendation is to use distilled water, not deionized.  Distilled will achieve the objective of eliminating tap water mineral deposits, but without the risk of some system component you can't see or control being corroded.

(distant) 2nd choice would be reverse osmosis (RO) water.  RO water is corrosive to certain metals, but should be ok (ish) with most polymers.

Don't take my word for it - a simple search for "DI water corrosion" should result in a trove of chemical compatibility charts.

Your absolutely correct, "use distilled water" not deionized water. As I dig into this I am also finding quaternary ammonium compounds seem to be very effective compounds with no corrosive effects. Many people like myself live in warmer climates (Sout west Florida) who don't need antifreeze qualities and would like a relatively inexpensive way to keep the cooling system from becoming an algae garden. Short of manufacturing one myself I suspect RV atifreeze is probably the simplest way to handle this.

Thanks for your input.

RV antifreeze is for use in potable water systems, and doesn't have any anti corrosion or lubricative additives like an automotive or other industrial antifreezes. The industrial stuff recommended by most spindle manufactures such as Dowtherm or Dowfrost or their own proprietary mix, is often quite expensive and isn't easy to find compared with automotive products.