[Ryott]

Hi. I operate a CNC milling machine. There is a conveyor to remove the chips from the coolant, but it seems to mostly just remove the bigger chips. The smaller chips travel around, and after a while there are too many. So several times a day they need to be scooped out with a skimming spoon. If they are not scooped out they would just build up until there's not much room for coolant. I don't know why the machine was built in a way that chips can get past the conveyor.

But I do want to figure out a cheap or free DIY way to automate the process, so that I don't have to keep scooping them. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. If you have questions, Feel free to, Thank.

[RCaffin]

Do what many aerospace companies do today. Abandon the flood coolant - it's a dinosaur, and use an air blast with MQL.
The side benefits are longer tool life, no coolant costs, no mess, no coolant disposal costs, no dermatology problems.

Cheers
Roger

[hanermo]

Make up a chip wash system.
A cheap simple pump, usually 3 phase, and suitable plastic hoses/nozzles that cost pennies and are consumables.

Either low or medium pressure, and possibly high volume, depending on your machine.
Low pressure makes less mist.

To test it out, get some gardening stuff from the local diy store, like sprinkler type stuff.
Some adjustable valves to control the flows.
Add some magnetic holders, and a pond/well type pump meant for evacuating dirty water sand and rocks.
Maybe 300$ to prove it out.

Some well pumps might last a long time, and are meant to run for long periods of time.