[Peter Gibbs]

Hey All , I have recently placed clear heavy duty plastic roller blinds around my MILL in an effort to contain swarf and coolant and it seems to improve things.... Now I want to be able to clean the machine more easily so I thought of a wash down hose ...can anyone say if the standard coolant pump will work for this porpose or am I wasting my time cheers Peter

[CJH]

Peter,

Chances are the stock coolant pump will not really give you the preasure that you would need for a wash down hose. I have tried this with our TM-1 at work and the result was really less than adequate. What I normally do is connect a smaller hose to the coolant line and spray the coolant from the tank on the mill sheet metal and then sqeegie it off. It is a bit of a time consuming process. I usally takes about 1/2 a day to clean the mill and get it set up to do dry cutting.

CJH

[Geof]

I have a wash down nozzle that uses compressed air and coolant; it works on the venturi principle so you just have a tube goind down into the coolant tank. I think I bought it at an auto parts store, and it was intended for using a degreaser mix in hot water to clean engines. This works very well because the air gives the blast and the coolant the wash.

If you get something like this just remember to take the coolant pickup tube out of the tank when you finish. I didn't once and left the nozzle on the floor with the result I siphoned forty gallons of coolant out onto the floor overnight.

[Peter Gibbs]

thanks both for your answer CJH I thought as much and I thought that for sure someone else would have tried it before.

Geoff are you back from Hols? Your solution seems to have merit , I just wish that I had thought of it wouldnt be a bad idea when using a 6mm cutter in a deep trench to clear the chips as well, there must be some sort of a compact unit out there that I can clamp onto the tool post on the TL2 and the TM 2 ill have to start looking not just a pretty face hey! The down side I guess is that I would need to wear ear protection........more often ... I have an air opperated vacuume cleaner that I have been using but it is a bit slow but is ok for cleaning out the Tee slots the high pressure would speed things up ...oops just realized its 2 am better get some shut eye


cheers mate peter

[Geof]

Back for a while. Next big trip starts in September.