I have my new Shapeoko Pro 5 setup with the 80mm spindle and the CW3000 chiller. The fluid lines they sent are blue. This means I can’t see anything moving through the lines. Everything is hooked up, and I turned on the chiller and it runs and displays a temperature on the front. The VFD cuts and does projects fine.
How can I tell the chiller is working? Is there a way I can monitor the temperature of the spindle? I can’t even tell if fluid is flowing to it
When I start mine up there are usually a few bubbles at the top of the curve where the lines come out of the spindle. When I turn it on I look at those bubbles to make sure the chiller is pumping.
Only way I know of to monitor the spindle is to stop it & feel it. Unless you have an infra-red thermometer.
The chiller has a flow sensor inside. If there was no coolant flowing, you’d hear an audible alarm.
Where can you see these bubbles? My hoses are some kind of blue non-see-through stuff. I can’t see any movement.
@wmoy Oh, ok, didn’t know that. That’s GOOD. Thanks! I think that satisfies my concerns.
I just have a small pump, and it can fail but still make noise like it is running fine, so I put one of these in the line to be able to see the flow.
If you are an Amazon shopper, they can be had for ~$20-$25.
Ah, OK. My lines are orange, but transparent so I can see the bubbles.
My flow meter of that style ended up leaking at the seam after some time. I haven’t replaced it, I just removed it. I did buy a similar one to replace it but I would’ve welcomed a more robust design - haven’t installed it yet.
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