Discovered that what was referred to as coolant actually said misting fluid on the bucket. I’ve also heard about unnatural evaporation rates for the coolant. That makes sense because misting fluid is supposed to act like vanishing oil from what I understand. Three common types of CNC coolant that I’ve been exposed too are flood, mist/oil mist, and air. I think the haas would have much more success and less strange quirks if we got some metal cutting fluid for it.
I was talking to Clayton about this last night, it makes sense to me at lease. Misting fluid would be too “thin” in my mind and because of that it could cause all of the issues we’ve been seeing lately (rust, high evap rate, weird mold etc).
Do you have any recommended coolants @Cwatkins?
1 Like
The only coolant I know to avoid is Blaser brand. Currently running GX Cool 2195. From my experience with about half a dozen different coolants, I’d say the most important thing is the concentration and not necessarily the brand. Also, don’t be surprised when copper turns it green.
This is the first google result for cnc coolant. You need cutting fluid. Now… with all that said. You have misting fluid. I’d like to see about taking a small block of mild steel and making a mister. But that would require air so I guess I’ll bring that up at the next committee meeting? I’d like to make a few mister/ Oiler/ air valve bodies for use outside of the space but I know they could be useful provided they are makerspace compliant.
1 Like
from another post:
Here’s what the shop in Lewisville uses in their Haas - both in the old one like ours and the new one.
He’s never had any kind of “critter” problem.
https://www.zoro.com/trim-coolant-5-gal-bucket-e206n5/i/G1505971/
https://www.masterfluidsolutions.com/na/en-us/trim/show-product-properties.php?pid=E206N
pH is higher 8.8 - 9.2
1 Like
Being that we have Microsol 585XT & that we use in the cold saw & lathe. Perhaps we should use it.
Also I added the UV light in today.
2 Likes
Anyone care to look into a RO water filtration for our water supply for the Haas? I want to put it before the committee meeting next weekend.
We should have a PH meter coming in today as well. So we can keep an eye on the PH and the brix concentration.
It may not be the optimal solution, but, it is easy and cheap. I would suggest running a 7.5% solution rather than the 5% used in the saw and lathe. This accommodates the higher speeds associated with the HAAS. And increases the pH .
I’d agree we should run it on the higher concentrations.
RO may be overkill does science have a need for it.
You may be right. That’s why we need to have the discussion about it. As long as we can strip the minerals, I think we would be ok. Haas does specify Distilled water. Microsol says to use mineral free water with 585XT
DI costs under $1000 RO is $3000 and up.
And gallons of distilled water is cheap at Kroger’s.
While that is true, we seem to be going through about 10 gallons of water a week.
10 gallon per week = $10 a week.
That’s 300 weeks = $3k for that RO unit. Over 5 years to payoff.
We can get make a small
self-contained portable unit at 300 per recharge at $65 - or make a larger capacity unit attached to a plastic plastic barrel filled.
With a quick disconnect on a sink unit can be attached to sink, fill barrel, bring back. We could even attach the filters to the tank so everything rolls ans stays together as unit.
This would get us probably 95%+ of the way to to DI quality. The Units make water at about $0.21/gal. At 20 gallons a week that’s the pre-built would last 15 weeks, larger capacity unit would last 375 weeks.
Thanks for volunteering to go get it every week for the next 5 years.
2 Likes
What would you estimate is the actual water usage we have a week for:
- Cold Cut Saw - my Swag would be 3 gal or less
- Lathe - my SWAG would be 3 gal or less
- Haas - don’t know, pure guess would be less than 5 gal.
I SWAG is based on how long the 5 gal container per mix lasts for CCS & Lathe, which when filled lasts at least a week.
Currently, it’s between 10 and 15 gal a week. Not sure if that’s a coolant problem, or the aerator running, but that’s what I’ve been adding weekly.
2 Likes
Thanks
So 25 gal/wk would probably be our upper limit - 100 gal a month or 2 barrels worth. Seems like a lot to me, but I’ve never refilled the Haas so have no idea how fast it consumes coolant.
When refilling the CCS & Lather, usually only add about 1.5 gal since generally only enough to get the coolant flowing properly plus about 1/2 gal. Reason: can’t see how much in tank and don’t want to overflow tank.