Building a Liquid Cooling Loop for the Laser Cutter

[@KE8UYV]

A long nose marker... I've needed this for a long time, but haven't heard of these until today. Thank you!

[@sublimationman]

I would like to hear how this worked out long term. I am about to buy a cheap laser like yours and I hate the idea of a bucket with ice blocks in it for cooling and I immediately thought about PC cooling systems like this. Surprisingly yours is pretty much the only video or info I could find on the subject and got me worried the cooling would not be good enough. Could you tell me what your max temp gets to when cutting?

[@biodieseler1]

All the water cooling placed above several thousand dollars worth of laser cutter. Confident!

[@pekwalker]

Awesome build! I have just bought a Laser Cutter and was thinking about making this very thing. Thank you very much for sharing this information. Subscribed.

[@Bajicoy]

Very cool, was planning on using some peltier thermo-electric pads on top of some traditional fan tower cpu heat sinks to get the temperature cold at the cost of efficiency, what temperature do those radiators manage to bring the system down to? I saw some videos on watercooling for cpu’s could keep the temperature warm if not shy of boiling which is fine for a cpu but maybe not so fine for a laser which could last longer if the temperature were kept below room temp.

[@bricogeekcom]

Fantastic edit Nick and very nice project!

[@el_ingefigue]

It looks as a very nice lasser cutter machine, i just have a big machine but the big problems is with the chiller it uses, i would like to do something like this.

[@MSRWorkshop]

Cool video, not a true chiller because it doesn’t actually have a compressor with coolant. More of a radiator so when your ambient temperature is really high it’s not going to be able to keep a low temp say 18c. Also I haven’t herd of anyone running coolant through a laser so not sure if it can affect quality, but awesome build none the less

[@JerkerMontelius]

Always electricity above water. The reservoir should be the highest point in the loop.

[@davidthompson9359]

Can you provide more detail on how you ran the wiring? I couldn't find a 50W PS was loking at using a low wattage PS with built in terminal strip similar to a "XINCOL AC to DC Converter AC110V/220V to DC12V 10A 120W Switched Mode Switching Power Supply" I randomly found on amazon.

[@sitgesvillaapartmentneilsc7924]

What were the results of it, did it work and cool the water to about 15 /18º C which is the correct operating temp of a C02 laser, I would have thought all you are doing in this sytstem is cooling the water to the ambient temperature, not making it colder which is what is required, also making it blue you cant see the colour of the laser beam to checklthe quality of plasma colour its generating. I have made something similar last year before i saw this for my CNC machine that has a water spindle on it that needs cooling but not very much and this is perfect , it has one fan, a large copper deposit, pure copper radiator and tempertaure controllers. For My C02 Laser I have 3 large peltier coolers, 3 radiators 3 fans 50 litres of deposit water , flow meters, alarms and that works because of the large volume of water you only need to cool it a few degrees. It still works out cheaper than an official cheaper and looks better than a ice block in a bottle.

[@toltecnightmare]

it could work better if it were enclosed with more fans in proper orientation, like a pc case. I have 14 120mm fans in my Enthoo 719 watercooling system, and if i stick my hand inside the case it feels like a refridgerator lol.

[@joelthomas79]

Not sure if someone mentioned this but I e been using lasers for a few years now. Keep the water nonconductive, if you add anything to it that conducts electronic current you will induce a current and if you touch the water supply while laser is running you will shock yourself pretty well. 2. You want to keep your laser water at sub 65 F.

[@DRAGONSTUDIOSTV]

great. planning to do it with a car's radiator + fan.

[@ShawnHymel]

This turned out great!

[@wwrite]

Is there a way you can do a follow up on your build? How does it work? Have you used it in the summer months? How hot was the ambient air and what settings where you running the laser at and for how long? Do you know you rejection ratio? I had an old mini fridge that I popped a couple of holes in and run a 5 gal bucket inside. I used DI water with a couple of drops of surfactant and a few drops of anti algae and I can consistently run full power for 3 hours at or below 20 C.

[@rosarodriguez3150]

according to your pump specs that meter should say flow of 500 l/h =2.2gpm and its only saying max 54 l/h=0.2378 gpm

[@theeverydayman9248]

Are you running the thermometer/flowmeter on 5 or 12 volts?

[@MayTheLightBeWithYou]

It only cools to the ambient air temp so in hot weather what do you do?

[@SignalDitch]

I don't run the laser in a room where the ambient is ever near 30C

[@AustinSteingrube]

Turned out great!

[@rickmccaskill7888]

Did you also use the 5 gal bucket for extra fluid storage? I built a similar design but also used 4 Peltier Thermo-Electric Cooler Module with Heatsink for added cooling. My laser show only 4 deg increase in fluid temperature after a 20 min full power cutting. Thanks for sharing.

[@SignalDitch]

It's been about a year now and it still works great. There's no bucket reservoir on mine, but it wouldn't hurt to have a little more thermal inertia. I keep my shop pretty cool, but I'm considering adding some peltier coolers for warmer days.

[@scottlecomte6511]

Cool Build. Can I ask why you used two radiators? Would one be enough?

[@henrymach]

Blue also helps preventing algae proliferation. But don't impurities in the water affect the laser?

[@SignalDitch]

I don't see why it would

[@henrymach]

@@SignalDitch Some ionization I guess. I'm not affirming. I'm asking

[@geauxracerx]

Anyone have any idea what the power requirements are for that Thermaltake Pacific TF2 There’s a 12v 3amp on Amazon that looks like it would work, but I’m not sure if it needs 12 or 5 volts

[@rwhipple73]

how did it go with that coolant? looks like its pretty conductive which is supposedly a big no no.

[@SignalDitch]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean

[@rwhipple73]

Many people say that conductive liquids can cause issues with the laser tubes. A quick search can net this info about the cooling liquid being conductive. Have you had any issues with arcing inside the laser tube due to the conductive cooling liquid?

[@flamingomtn]

What is the longest you've run your laser with this setup, and it kept the coolant within the temperature parameters? I live in Florida and it's summer, and I have a big contract with a ton of cutting time involved. I need to run a bunch of 20 minute jobs, back to back.

[@SignalDitch]

I wouldn't rely on this during a Florida summer. It won't get below ambient and maybe picks up a 1 to 2 degrees C during a 10 minute high power cutting job. In an air conditioned shop it might hold up (if you're keeping the room chilly at 19C) but you really need a chiller. This rig has worked well so far but I'm likely to convert this to a TEC based chiller in the coming months.

[@ShaneGadsby]

Dude, that turned out wicked! With just over a month of use, how would you say it's working out?

[@SignalDitch]

It does a great job of keeping the tube within a few degrees of room temperature, which is fine for now. That said, the shop will heat up during the summer and I anticipate that I may need to add a thermoelectric stage to bring those temperatures back down. If that turns out to be the case, I'll make an update video!

[@ShaneGadsby]

​@@SignalDitch Thanks for the quick reply! That's awesome! I've been thinking about how to cool my admittedly lower powered K40 clone, and this video definitely convinced me to go down the same path as you, thanks for making the video!

[@davidthompson9359]

@@SignalDitch Since you're using coolant and not distilled water how would you add cooling? to bring down the temperature. I was thinking of using an ice bucket type setup below and run a loop of tubing in and out of it. I'm trying to make add ins without adding an additional power supply running up your electric bill.

[@Damitrix18]

Great build! I was wondering, what was the power supply that you used?

[@chaikohskarika5260]

Im also to do like you. Im live in Thailand as you know weather very very hot. Im thinking to add 6w peltier make more cooler

[@marigoldjanies5756]

I rewatched your football quote a few times, that shit had me rollin'. Pretty good idea in theory, but I'm curious as the industrial chillers have refrigerant and is regulated like a refrigerator, do you have a temp sensor on the tube itself? If so, what temps does this run at?

[@3dtexan890]

Being new to the K40 laser. How does this system keep the coolant at the required temp between 15-20c, without active cooling? Am I missing something here? Just askin'

[@3dtexan890]

Why even comment when you get no reply??

[@darkwinter7395]

Re: chirality... well, at least it's not a prion!

[@biodieseler1]

... or Thalidomide!!

[@3dtexan890]

This will only cool to room temp or maybe a few degrees below. If you have your room at 75F then this will only cool between 22 and 23c. Not good. If you have your laser in the garage like I do, it is between 85 and sometimes 95F or more here in Texas. Active, (refrigerated CHILLER) is a must. Stay away for COOLERS. Just sayin.

[@Graeme758]

Ambient cooler, waste of effort except for winter months.

[@SignalDitch]

...or inside a climate controlled space. I'm still using it 4 years later.

[@TomBodet556]

boo. no performance info on how it holds up.

[@SignalDitch]

I'd have loved to, but I had to pack up the shop a few weeks after this video. I've since moved house and have a lot more shop space so as soon as I get it hooked back up, I'll do some logging. In case you need the info now, you really can't expect miracles out of this, in a comfortably air conditioned room it will keep this 80W tube under 30C rasterizing at near full output for more or less as long as you want... as long as I want anyway. Like I said, project retrospective and upgrades (with TECs, probably?) coming eventually but... new house stuff, you know? Anyway, thanks for watching. Be cooler in the comments next time.