Cracked Water Pump Reservoir

[hotsticker]

Well woke up this morn to do a simple project on my 1 week old AR6 Pro and had a puddle of coolant on the spoilboard. I opened the cover to investigate and looks like the reservoir is cracked. Can get one on Amazon for only 20 bucks, delivery next day,  but this particular pump has terrible reviews. Has anyone else had this happen? Is there a better pump that could be used. I'm very frustrated right  now since my machine is only a week old.  Why would you build such a good and expensive machine and put a piece of $%^& pump in the design?

[johnb]

Looks like to me the fill screw was overtightened at some point. Call Chad at Axiom on Tuesday, I'm sure he will rush you a brand new one.

[stevem]

The coolant pump Axiom uses is used for PC cooling. I don't have the Pro, but I put a spindle on my AR4 Basic and got all the stuff from Amazon and EBay. I basically copied the Axiom design and used a clear piece of plastic for my cover, so I can look in to see if the pump is working.
I have been using it that way for well over a year now without any problems. The ump isn't really that strong, but I don't think the spindle needs 50 gal an hour running thru it. Running my machine for over 6 hours straight, the spindle has never got over 92 degrees.
The pumps on EBay are about $14. I bought a spare just in case.

[johnb]

Axiom does cover up the pump with a metal shroud, but I can tell if my pump is running for two reasons:

1) There is slightly warm air coming out of the radiator. If the pump wasn't running, it would be room temp air (and the spindle would be hot).

2) As you mentioned, these pumps are not very strong...mine is not strong enough to evacuate the air bubble at the top of the spindle, so when it (or the machine) shuts off, the air bubble rises into the tubing and it's very evident that there is no flow happening. The flow provides enough coolant to bathe the critical parts of the spindle, even with this air bubble trapped therein, so it's not a problem, although I've tried mightily to get it out of there by thumping, tapping, etc.on the side of the spindle...and ...before you ask, yes, I the coolant in my pump reservoir is topped off so that it's not drawing air into the vortex. I never see bubbles flowing through the coolant on either the inlet or outlet side when the pump is running. As soon as I turn the thing on, the bubble at the inlet on the spindle gets sucked down inside it and a solid stream of coolant follows as long as it's running.

[stevem]

There are stronger pumps available, but they wouldn't fit in the same area as the one they provide, but like I said before, I don't thing a huge pump is necessary. In the summer here being 90 degrees outside, the spindle just doesn't get that warm. I suppose if there was a stronger pump used, the spindle would stay quite cool. I don't know if that is bad or good.