[dougtyler]

Does anybody have any good suggestion for cleaning the coolant tank on a Mini Mill?

When I empty the tank, I like to get all the shavings and gunk cleaned out before adding the new coolant back in.

The hard part is reaching up to the front part of the tank.

Just elbow grease, or is there a better way?

[Ydna]

We use a tedious procedure of using a squeegee cleaner with a telescoping handle to try gathering up as much debris/scum as possible. The machine is small but cleaning the tank takes just as long as any other "removable" tank, since you are forced to empty it then wiggle your arms around inside the access holes for a while. I've found it depends a lot on the amount of liquid that remains in the tank, since if you can clear out the vast majority of it and let the residual coolant dry off, it makes scraping the remaining surfaces easier. This varies from application to application though, and would probably depend on the material/amount of chips left stuck to the walls...