Mist Coolant

[Carl Wilson]

Does anyone have experience with mist coolant? I'm talking about the sort of set up where compressed air is used to atomise a small amount of liquid coolant.

I've seen it used in various videos on the Internet. It seems like a good way to save on the mess caused by flood coolant use.

The question is does it cool as well as flood?

I'm just wondering as it would be easy to make a set up I think. I have quite a lot of experience with air blast atomisation.

 

[maz0]

Curious about this as well. Something that piqued my interest was that its not good for your health as you can inhale the mist when working in the vicinity, not sure if this is true though?

 

[james butler]

coolant when it gets old can become a fester pit for bacteria, our machine shop has to reuse the coolant so biocide is added to the coolant to kill any bacteria which still gives you a sore throat/chest if breathed in.
we do have great extraction but sometimes its still not enough if you have to enter a machine
in short probably not a good idea if im honest.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I had an interest too but decided against for the same reasons James listed .

 

[Barlidge]

Genuine question but how can a mist which will be airborne cause less mess than a liquid?

 

[Parm]

It’s not a good idea. If you value your lungs don’t do it

 

[Hood]

Genuine question but how can a mist which will be airborne cause less mess than a liquid?

There is a lot less of it than flood so less to get everywhere. Flood gets thrown around with cutters, mist tends to not get thrown about due to it being fine particles.
Mist can work well as you also have the force of the air blasting the chips away but it is noisy and expensive.
It does a good enough job of lubricating and does a good job of cooling as well due to the compressed air and also the heat getting taken away with the chips as they are blasted clear of the part.

 

[Parm]

coolant when it gets old can become a fester pit for bacteria, our machine shop has to reuse the coolant so biocide is added to the coolant to kill any bacteria which still gives you a sore throat/chest if breathed in.
we do have great extraction but sometimes its still not enough if you have to enter a machine
in short probably not a good idea if im honest.

Biocides are harmful too, just look at the MSDS

 

[Hood]

Here is a vid of my mates home brew mist coolant, as you can see there is very little liquid used and not like some imagine great clouds of it.

 

[Carl Wilson]

I was going to use non soluble coolant (Castrol Ilocut 486). The air is at lower pressure than the shop air and the idea is meant to be that a small amount of coolant goes much further.

It doesn't produce great clouds of stuff, the idea is to use much less in a very directed way.

I'm just not sure it would cool a tool or work as much as flood.

 

[mike os]

You don't use it on open machines fir the same reasons you don't breath in aerosols like paint ....... The mist is not good for you.

Live with the mess, it's easier than living on oxygen

 

[Parm]

The mist created will be invisible to the naked eye. I’ve been working with a camera crew and lighting people to highlight the mist against a dark background. It’s quite interesting to see what goes on.

Inhalation of coolant mist is not good at all. It caused the largest outbreak of occupational asthma anywhere in the western world. Over a 100 people at the now defunct power train plant have serious health problems

http://www.hse.gov.uk/metalworking/experience/powertrain.pdf

 

[maz0]

Interesting points. Sounds a bit like sand blasting with builders sand, easy to miss the hazard if you dont do the research!

 

[addjunkie]

coolant when it gets old can become a fester pit for bacteria, our machine shop has to reuse the coolant so biocide is added to the coolant to kill any bacteria which still gives you a sore throat/chest if breathed in.
we do have great extraction but sometimes its still not enough if you have to enter a machine
in short probably not a good idea if im honest.

The modern coolants have antibacterial products in already

 

[Parm]

The modern coolants have antibacterial products in already

They don’t. Conditions need to be checked regularly and biocides added accordingly. Too much biocide will corrode the machine

To make matters worse there is also a type of coolant called bio concept. It comes supplied full of bacteria

 

[MBB]

They used a mist coolant on Wickman autos, all the guys that operated them died with lung cancer including the one that didn't smoke.