first of all, im new to all things cnc, so im new to flood coolant too.

if i built a simple system similar to something like the one on the IH site just using a rubbermaid container and bubbler running all the time, would that be sufficient to keep some of the better synthetic coolants ive read about on this site from going rancid? coolants like the castrol and hocut...etc.

as much as id love to get a skimmer also, i cant really afford one right now unless anybody has some suggestions on cheaper methods of building/obtaining one.

also, i know this might sound really stupid, but if i had a drain from my bench to my coolant container underneath, what happens with all of the chips? do they simply sink to the bottom on the coolant tank? are they supposed to even make it into the coolant tank? do they need to be filtered somehow before they make it to the tank? i can't see how chips in the tank can be friendly to a pump...

thanks for any help, again im new to all of this, but im trying to learn =0)

-rene

I have a rubbermade container and a fish tank bubbler. I've been using the same coolant for about a year now w/ no problems. As far as the chips go, I built myself a filter. It's a 3" aluminum tube about 6" long. I drilled several small holes in the sides of the tube, moving upwards. That way if chips clog the filter at the bottom, the coolant will still make it out the upper holes. The filter is just several different sizes of mesh rolled up inside. Works fairly well although I still have some dust sized chips piling up on the bottom of my container.

do you think you can get any pics of your filter/setup? i might just go with doing something like that...