[TravisR100]

I've got an SMM2 with a 24 gallon capacity coolant sump. The machine doesn't run much. Sometimes it may go several weeks without being run. Because of this I don't lose much coolant with chips or splashing. What I do get however is evaporation. When creating makeup coolant to replace the evaporated water I've read to never simply add straight water. Always make up weak coolant to replace it.

The problem with that is that when it evaporates, only the water is evaporating from the coolant mixture, not the coolant. So If I replenish it with anything but straight water I'm slowly but surely increasing the concentration every time I add replacement coolant. What is the solution to this? Drain some of the existing coolant each time?

I've read to use a "weak" coolant mixture to replace evaporated coolant. How weak is acceptable? 1%? .1%?

[Geof]

Not adding straight water is new to me, I do it frequently. But you do have to be careful, don't just pour a bucket of water over the machine table and then just leave it; that is a guaranteed way to get rust. Pour the water in the coolant tank with the pump running and circulate everything to thoroughly mix it. I had mentioned elsewhere that a good way to keep the coolant oxygenated is to take the wash down hose and just put it in the coolant tank and let the pump run for an hour or so every few days to circulate the coolant.

On the topic of coolant maintenance I recently bought a coolant cleaner to try it out. I also leave my machine untouched for weeks at a time and sometimes the coolant gets very rank. In addition the fancy separator thing that is supposed to discharge waste oil into a little bottle and send coolant back into the tank has never worked on my machine so I have a considerable tramp oil accumulation. The cleaner has been in operation for about five weeks now and it works. My coolant was a yellowish brown with tramp oil and had a bad odour. It now is slightly off-white with just a normal coolant odor and the cleaner has accumulated about a quart of tramp oil in the settling tank. Not a cheap solution though; I paid $1600 for the cleaner used and the new price is twice that.

[TravisR100]

Well good to know someone else does it anyway! No, I certainly wouldn't poor it over the machine table. I'd add it directly to the sump. Going to give it a try since my concentration is steadily climbing.

I have a coalescer on mine. See this post:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91672

I let it run 24x7 although I'm thinking about putting it on a timer. It constantly circulates, aerates, and filters the coolant. IIRC it was about $700. Coolant still looks like the day I mixed it and put it in fresh. Kind of nice since the intake for the system pulls the coolant off the surface like a pool skimmer.

[Delw]

Another great way is to put a aquarium pump with a small aquarium stone in the tank. leave it running 24/7 this wont hurt anything and will reduce the stagnet smell from letting coolant set. they have a stone that is heavy about a 4" diameter ring and it sets ring on the bottom.

Unlike Geof I have been told the same thing about not adding straight water but I dont listen and do it all the time, lol LIKE Geof make sure you add it either into the tank and run the pumps. however I pour the bucket into the machine and then run a 4" face mill for a while.

if it makes you feel better just add a cup of coolant to 5 gals of water you still need to mix it after you pour it in.

Remember one thing the water will evaporate the coolant will not , the coolant is lost usually through chips then they are taken out and dumped.

a oil skimmer is a must on most machines, the haas has me a bit baffled as I dont have oil in my coolant yet. my fadal is like a well.
also that aquarium air pump will keep the coolant moving so the oil will get collected

[TravisR100]

The coalescer I have has an airstone and aquarium pump with it for that very purpose.

[behindpropeller]

Geof-

What filter do you have?

I'm thinking about putting one of these strainers inline with the output of my coolant pump:





And then one of the more coarse filters like you find in a home water system.

The zebra one that Travis has looks interesting but its not in the budget yet.

Tim

[TravisR100]

behind, check this post:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91280

It has a picture of the filter I put on the output of my coolant pump. Took me about 20 minutes to put it on. Got it at Lowes. Took out the fine micron filter it had in it and put in a coarse filter. The other nice thing about it is that it has a bypass valve should it get clogged in the middle of something and you want to bypass it without having to stop to change the filter.

[behindpropeller]

behind, check this post:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91280

It has a picture of the filter I put on the output of my coolant pump. Took me about 20 minutes to put it on. Got it at Lowes. Took out the fine micron filter it had in it and put in a coarse filter. The other nice thing about it is that it has a bypass valve should it get clogged in the middle of something and you want to bypass it without having to stop to change the filter.

My thought was to put the coarse filter shown above in and then the one you have after it. Mainly because I can clean out the coarse filter pretty easy.

Tim

[TravisR100]

I'm probably not as qualified as some to respond but the one I got seems pretty easy to change and I haven't managed to clog it up yet. You'll also notice in the post I mentioned that I put a bit of coarse filter material before the metal screen on the coolant pump. That seems to help considerably as well. Traps the larger stuff so the pump and filter never see it.

[behindpropeller]

I'm probably not as qualified as some to respond but the one I got seems pretty easy to change and I haven't managed to clog it up yet. You'll also notice in the post I mentioned that I put a bit of coarse filter material before the metal screen on the coolant pump. That seems to help considerably as well. Traps the larger stuff so the pump and filter never see it.

I will have to get some pics of the TM series pump. It looks different than your SMM2 setup. I'm sure Geof can tell the difference since he has both.

Another thing I need to do soon is increase the size of the coolant tank. By the time the table is full of coolant and everything is running down the tank is empty and dribbling out of the nozzle at the tool. I understand HAAS trys to build affordable machines but this is a simple thing that might cost another $30 in production to fix.

Tim

[Delw]

travis and behind
have you guys noticed those inline filters grabbing the coolant as well as oils?
It would seem a paper filter will grab the coolant. I like that Idea you gys have, and especially the part of a bypass incase the filter clogs while running. I think it would also get rid of the Fines that go past the screens in the tank as well.


where did you get your inline filter system at and what was the cost of them?


Delw

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi Travis,

I purchased a water treatment filter system from Lowes that had a clear acrylic bowl on it. In a matter of a few months I had two of them crack and had to have them replaced. I finally took it off and now have a filter like Tim has shown in his picture.

It looks like your filter housing is constructed of a different material.

Do you have a brand and part number for the filter you are using?

Also, do you have a brand and part number for the coarse filter element you put in your filter housing?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

[TravisR100]

I got mine at Lowes.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...WHV&lpage=none

I took out the 5 micron filter that came with it and replaced it with one of these 30 micron pleated filters.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...HPL&lpage=none

Funny, the Lowes web site describes the filter as having a shutoff valve, not a bypass valve. I distinctly remember the documentation describing it as a bypass valve however. Maybe just my poor memory.

[behindpropeller]

One more link:

http://www.kemflointernational.net/Client/HomePage.aspx

[Delw]

cool thanks for the links,
has anyone noticed or even tried it in a clean tank with coolant to see how much coolant its takes out fo the water?
Reason I ask is this looks like it will pull oils out of the water and thats pretty much the viscosity of water based coolant even though it solidifys in the water . I would hate to have it filter out all the needed coolant. I sure do like it .
I guess I could always build a screen to pull the fines out and leave the coolant intact.

Thanks guys
Delw

[Geof]

To answer some questions.

I use standard domestic water filters, same as Travis describes, on the outlet og the coolant pump. the filter elements I have found best are the woven fibre ones; we tried the type that looks like pleated paper and it clogged within hours, I suspect it wasn't paper but was plastic and it swelled with the coolant.

The coalescing filter I got is from Keller Products, it is one of the mobile ones. I missed Travis' thread where he mentioned his Zebra back in October, that was when I was in deepest darkest Germany without internet access.

Regarding coolant pumps Haas has the wimply little thing that I think is standard on the MiniMills, TMs and TLs; it pees like an old man with prostate problems. They also have the high flow pump that is great with a capacity of zillions of gallons per hour.

[MadMax]

I've been doing well by running my skimmer for 15min a day during the warmup cycle (no coolant running during warmup) to pull off the tramp oil that drips off overnight. For some time I was losing the stinkwar using biocides. After 15min I find that nearly all of the oil accumulation is gone. I'm thinking of rewiring the skimmer so I can turn it on with a light timer half an hour before we open. I don't find that there's much for it to pick up when the machine is spraying away possibly because the oil gets churned around instead of rising to the top.

I have had very good results with aeration though. I leave a line with a bronze muffler element bubbling away overnight. It's connected to the compressor tank which is switched off overnight and weekends, but it seems to have enough capacity to bubble away at low PSI over the weekend. I pop the aerator into the oil separator for half an hour before shutting down daily to gas out the separator which can get pretty eggy. It's always got a heavy layer of oil in it with some nasty looking sludge, but daily aeration seems to keep the smell completely under control. It looks gross, but it doesn't smell so I don't bother pulling off the top very often. That way I can let a thick layer of tramp muck collect before skimming it with a cup. I do find that the little ports at the bottom of the separator section on my tank do clog from time to time. I notice this when the level in the separator gets higher than the rest of the tank. I run a stiff wire around the bottom edge of the separator and it usually clears the plug.

It's been three months since I made my juice and it's still a nice light blue with no smell. I do infrequent (biweekly I guess) refractometer checks to top up a bit of concentrate, but nothing major. I haven't done any filtration to pull fines or oil and it seems to be doing well. I do worry that I might be losing emulsion stability though. There is a heavy coating of light blue butter on the tank insides which may be good rust protection. I hear that regular addition of hard water can cause progressive mineral buildup as you distill off the water which can destabilize coolant emulsion. I'm getting a water distiller for my makeup water to see if this helps when I do my next coolant batch. My plan is to make the new charge of coolant with city water and use distilled water for makeup water so I don't keep upping the mineral content.

When I finally turn over this coolant and start a new charge, I'll permanently install aeration lines to bubble the tank and the separator. I'm very happy with how well aeration has dealt with the stink.

I've also got a chip rinsing scheme to recapture much of the coolant that gets pulled out on the chips. I dump the days production of chips into a pair of plastic garbage cans. One can telescopes into the other and has holes drilled in it so coolant can fall out and collect into the bottom can. Instead of dumping makeup water right into my tank, I pour it over the chips with a big watering can and let it drip out overnight before dumping the dilute reclaimed coolant and make up water into the sump tank. I'm not overly concerned with pouring straight water into the tank, but my recycler likes my clean chips and I lose very little of my coolant concentrate.

How long do you guys get on your coolant before it goes irrecoverably bad? I was worried that I was going to have to dump mine a few weeks ago, but the aerator turned things around in a day. The improvement was so fast that I'm hoping that I'll get a lot longer on this first charge.

Sorry for all the words. I'm new at this. My first machine and we got it this past summer. My first piece of gear that has real infrastructure needs.

[Geof]

....How long do you guys get on your coolant before it goes irrecoverably bad? I was worried that I was going to have to dump mine a few weeks ago, but the aerator turned things around in a day. The improvement was so fast that I'm hoping that I'll get a lot longer on this first charge.

Sorry for all the words. I'm new at this. My first machine and we got it this past summer. My first piece of gear that has real infrastructure needs.

Eighteen months, maybe more since I drained, washed and refilled the coolant tank on the SuperMiniMill in my home shop.

With the procedures you are doing you should be able to keep going indefinitely, especially if you do use distilled water for topping up.

Aeration is most definitely the key to keeping things healthy with tramp oil removal a close second.

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi Tim,

I had one like was pictured for the whole household in the link you provided. I have attached a picture of it. That was the one that the clear plastic bowl cracked (TWICE). Another friend of mine has had similar problems on his HAAS TM-1P.

I saw a similar one at Home Depot that had a different type of bowl on it. Looked like it might be some type of resin. Maybe that one would be more durable.

Just something to be aware of. I have a small coolant strainer like the one pictured in this thread that I purchased at WWW Grainger and it has performed flawlessly.

John

[Geof]

.....I saw a similar one at Home Depot that had a different type of bowl on it. Looked like it might be some type of resin. Maybe that one would be more durable...
John

It is.

The Home Depot clear plastic one looks like it is polycarbonate; I know polycarbonate is resistant to my coolant and I also know acrylic is not because I have machined both.