Lathe coolant system

[brewdexta]

Hi Ronan
It's a chipmaster, probably similar tank etc. When I bought mine there was a choice of the length of the pump so it sat in the tank properly, if you can't find the length you want on UK ebay you can probably buy it on the German one. I bought my stainless tanks for brewing on German and French ebay, much cheaper than here.

Cheers
Andy

 

[brewdexta]

Ronan

Forgot to say that you may be able to run your pump via a static phase converter, read the whole thread I linked to, my pump windings were fubar but I went through the motions of doing this before I realised.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Pete.]

What colchester do you have andy ? I have a a master 2500 , i want to get the suds flowing as i turn a fair bit of stainless steel and it heats up really quickly. What i had intended to do was buy a cheap vfd to run the three phase pump, but one of those pumps you bought would be cheaper and better if it fitted in the tank.

Just stick a capacitor across to the third leg. Loads of people do it and it works fine.

 

[brewdexta]

Just stick a capacitor across to the third leg. Loads of people do it and it works fine.

That's the basic static phase converter - posh name for a cap across the third leg

 

[p0689109]

jackjosh: I have had a look on Axminsters' web site and cannot find what you suggested. Any part number or any more info?
Forget that I have found it under coolant system.

 

[p0689109]

Looking at the prices of cutting fluids. Axminster do Ambersil 5L @ £51.98 plus p&p and Lawson for £40.75 & £4.98 p&p. Sealey do a product which works out at £36.02 & p&p @ £3.95 with a firm called justoffbase . Which is the better product for the money. The Ambersil one is clear and stays clear in use. Does/is the other one the same?

 

[scott0031]

None of them you are being bent over and rogered at those prices.


Kind regards,


Scott

 

[ronan]

I bought a 5 litre can of ecocool s761 here in dublin for around €30 , which i reckon is about £25 in the uk , maybe less , so i agree with scott, those prices are way over the top.

 

[awemawson]

My 20 litre Castrol Hysol Excel was £99 from MSC on special offer on their flyer. VAT on top of course

So that's pretty well pro-rata for Ronan's cost

 

[Welderpaul]

I buy this for our saws. £50 or so we pay for 20L which makes up 200L when its mixed.
We don't need anything fancy on the bandsaws or drills, just something to keep the cutting bit wet

 

[awemawson]

I'd actually considered that stuff after seeing it on eBay a few days ago, but cannot get the maker to confirm compatibility with the slideway lubricants used on the Traub CNC lathe and the special liquid grease used in the tool turret, whereas Castrol were happy to !

I'd be happy to use it in a less critical machine

 

[scott0031]

I'd actually considered that stuff after seeing it on eBay a few days ago, but cannot get the maker to confirm compatibility with the slideway lubricants used on the Traub CNC lathe and the special liquid grease used in the tool turret, whereas Castrol were happy to !

I'd be happy to use it in a less critical machine

I know you keep going on about this 'said coolant' but its not like that for everyone. I will not use with that stuff in any of my machines and I was not very happy at all. I was even more unhappy with the techs that came to test it and fed me what i felt was commercial lip service.


They did the right thing in the end as a good will gesture (Which I give them credit for) with some some very stiff talking but still at a cost to me. So I now use Fuchs Ecocool in my machining centre. It is by no means scientific, but it does seem to disperse much better making richer appearing coolant than many other makes I have used. So far seems to do what it says on the tin.

Obviously I wont divulge any more information on a public forum and these things do happen where coolants do agree with some machines.


That said, most coolants spoken about here are semi synthetic coolants and they are really a bit overkill for a bit of odd turning here and there. All you need is a basic mineral based soluble, nothing fancy is required.

All this talk of bacteria etc, Its a bit of scare mongering really, it can happen and it does happen but its very, very unlikely to happen to you in a home/hobby type environment, so don't be overly concerned about it, in fact don't be concerned about it at all.


Kind regards,


Scott

 

[awemawson]

Scott,

I don't want to be argumentative at all on this, but my experience is that bacteria problems are far MORE likely to occur in the home workshop rather than in industry, as the coolant is only used very occasionally and is less likely to be on a regular testing regime.

 

[MrFluffy]

I dont know about bacteria and tramping, because Ive always used synthetic soluble oil mixes. I bought a big drum of gulf hydrocut and finally used the last a year or two back. I still have the original fill topped up in my mill 12 years later. Can you even buy mineral suds now? I thought most of the cutting solutions were synthetics with anti algie in them as standard.

On the pump itself, theres a lot of people buying suds etc setups, and while I have the same on most my machines, for 6 years I managed just fine with a cheap plastic fishtank immersible pump dropped in the lathes original suds sump and a bit of fine mesh over the intake with the lid of the sump being protected by coarser mesh, flow regulation by inline aquarium barrel tap valve. I was predicting its death by swarf to its plastic impeller for years and it was only ever a temporary solution, but what finally off'ed it was I dropped one of the larger 3 jaw chucks on it when I was doing some maintenance and split the body.

 

[Wedg1e]

I blagged about 10L of soluble oil from the machine shop at one of our clients about 7 years ago: I think I've used 3L of it between my Boxford VSL and Bridgeport 1ES. I have yet to fill the Colchester, just use an old Mr. Muscle bathroom cleaner squirty bottle. The spray heads eventually die on those bottles (whatever plastic it is probably doesn't like the oil) but Nursy gets through plenty of them

Haven't noticed any odd pongs from it despite the infrequent use my machines get.

 

[p0689109]

If the prices I found are extortionate where are the cheaper products sold? Initially I just need 5L.

 

[hareng]

Try Hughes and Holmes at it used to be called, now taken over by James Listers. Morris soluable oil gone up to £17/5lrs.