We recently purchased an OMTech 55W Laser for hobby use but did not purchase the external chiller radiator. The one that’s for for sale for around $150-200 price range is simply a “radiator” type cooler with an alarm wire that can be fed back to the laser. To me this seems like a rather ludicrous price for something that cools the tube to room temperature. This being said it was clear that when the laser gets heavy use the 5 Gallon bucket of distilled water (w/ 8 drops of algicide and 8 drops of dish soap) did heat up to over 75 degrees with a few hours of cutting. I wanted to keep the laser operating in the most efficient manner so I built a simple radiator chiller on the cheap using brand-new parts from Amazon for only around $40 and it works like a charm. No hardware was needed beyond what came with the purchase which also yielded a couple extra pipe clamps and some Gates hose:
Hayden Automotive 403 Ultra-Cool Tube and Fin Transmission Cooler
Use the foam pads between the fan and the radiator to reduce vibration and the plastic mounting tabs that come with the radiator to attach the fan. Note – the fan needs to be mounted at an angle to the radiator so the mounting holes clear the pipes. This was mounted in a laser cut plywood enclosure just to keep the fins from getting dinged up and placed on the floor beside the 5 Gallon bucket. The silicone lines for the water were cut and plumbed into the radiator and the pipe clamps included with the radiator were used to secure them.
The Lightburn (recommended) and SVG Files to cut the enclosure are linked here:
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