I've got two ideas / questions for the Haas coolant system. I would have posted this in general machines but some aspects of these ideas might be only be applicable to Haas equipment.
1) Filtration of fines and contaminates:
I tend to take shallow, high speed cuts in aluminum. This produces all kinds of small particles of aluminum. I find that these make it through the 'Chip Trap' prefilter I have on the machine. They also stay suspended in the coolant and many make it past the labrynth in the coolant tank only to be recycled by the pump where they get recut on my parts. It's not good for the pump and it's not good for my parts.
My idea is to purchase a 'whole house' water filtration system and plumb it into the pump outlet, before the washdown hose or coolant feed lines. Whirlpool sells a huge, whole house filter with a see-through case for about $60 and an inexpensive pleated cartridge for about $15 (local Lowes store).
For drinking water, that particular cartridge doesn't look like it would do much but it looks like it would be a perfect filter for a CNC (they do offer better cartridges for drinking water but they'd probably inhibit the coolant flow).
It could either be plumbed to only the coolant feed, the wash hose or both. It'd be an easy way to capture those fines before they get sprayed at the part and endlessley recirculated. Yeah, the stuff would go through the pump once but that would be the end of it.
2) Automatic Shutoff Valve for the Washdown Hose:
Again, the pump has a standard 'hose bib' thread. Every time I use the washdown hose, I am forced to shutoff all the taps in the cabinet or walk around behind the machine to shut off one of the lines (not easy to get to in my case).
My idea here was to purchase a household sprinkler valve to switch the outlet to the coolant nozzles on and off. They do sell sprinkler valves which don't have the anti-siphon valve. That's the kind you'd need or risk it belching coolant every time the pump shuts off.
A few plastic pipe fittings, some wire and maybe a relay and away you go. The idea is to shut off coolant flow to the spindle area any time the doors are open (or maybe when the spindle isn't running). You could open the doors after a cycle and just spray away with the washdown hose without having to shut valves off.
Now the question is: how would you activate the valve? I was thinking of finding a 'door open' trigger somewhere on the I/O board and tying in to that logic. It seems there isn't anything 'easy' to give that signal. If I had the high intensity lighting option, that switch would be perfect to tie into the system.
Any other tinkerers have an opinion on interfacing such a valve?
How about the coolant filtration idea? Any pitfalls that I haven't anticipated?