[CROSSHATCH]

I have had chips sitting in the chip tray on my Torus Pro (I have the older tray), no wash-down. When I vacuum my chips, I in the process chip the paint off the bottom of tray (not the sides of the enclosure) and looks like the the tray is rusting for sure. Is this something people also deal with and just live with or do you guys react and try to resolve this? if so, what have you done? I wonder if a layer of epoxy could be used to "seal" the metal. Maybe I'm overthinking it and it's not a big deal...

I don't like that my table has surface rust on it too, but seems that no matter how much I blow the coolant off and do a wipedown, I still manage to build up rust on my table. I'm using Trimsol coolant btw...

Just curious.

Thanks,

-Jason

[dertsap]

How is the coolant ratio . Your coolant should have enough rust inhibitors in it , but if the consentration is too low then it'll definitely rust

[LeeWay]

Even Koolmist 77 helps to prevent surface rust. Don't blow it off. Let it drip dry.
Chips left in the pan will corrode. Especially if more than one type of metal. Different metals are highly discriminatory. They really do not like each other. I have ruined two trays because I could not keep them clean enough. One even had a marine based paint coating on it. It didn't last much longer than the raw one I first tried.
You just have to keep better housekeeping on it.

[UniqueMachining]

Lee

My machine is 2-3 years old and shows no rust even where the paint is gone.

I have always used Blaso Cut 2000 CF (Clorine Free).

Great stuff!

John

[LeeWay]

I was going to suggest possibly doing a coolant change, but didn't have a recommendation. Koolmist didn't prevent similar situations for me. Sounds like Blaso Cut is probably worth a try.

[CROSSHATCH]

I don't do bad housekeeping, but I have left chips in the machine and on the bottom of the tray for weeks on end...especially if I wasn't' running for a few weeks. So maybe that is bad housekeeping, I am pretty good though about cleaning most times. I only cut 6061 aluminum and my concentrations could be off. Condensation is a problem in my garage especially during the muggy nights and unusual warm/cold spells.

I'm thinking I could use a coolant change. At this rate, I will just do my best to keep the chips out of the tray and leave it as is. I can't lift the machine right now and try and paint it/seal it...

I'll try and snap some pics this weekend.

-Jason

[LeeWay]

That is what I meant by housekeeping. Cleaning the tray out. With my home made mill, I never could get all the chips out really. Very poor to no design at all went into those trays.

[AUSTINMACHINING]

I use coolmist and never had any rust problems. I have some paint chipped off in places in the pan, but I think that is mechanical/not chemical. I do WD-40 the table when I'm done and never had rust on the table, but it seems to eat the paint on the metal limit switch cover at the back of the table. I just designed my own enclosure using aluminum for the trays/wings, so no worries with paint in the future.

[LeeWay]

The two trays that I had corrode out were aluminum.

[AUSTINMACHINING]

The two trays that I had corrode out were aluminum.

Weird. I made one for work 5 years ago that still looks new. We were using cimcool. What are you using that reacts with aluminum ?.

[LeeWay]

Steel chips in the pan with Kool mist 77. I didn't see hardly any rust, but all the sudden holes started appearing in the pan. It corroded.