Cooling you coolant, does someone have done this...

[RedGTZ]

I own a Bridgeport-Romi PowerPath 15 CNC lathe and this lathe is great! plenty of power and easy to use, easy to machine very precisely with it.

now my problem... I oftem run parts made of 4140 HT and similar alloys 5-6inch diameter with a lot of roughing on them with precise tolerances, bearing races, etc. The coolant pan on this machine is not very big and the coolant get hot after only 3-4 parts to the point of having to play with the measurments from hot to cold for the rest of the day... another thing that does not help is that I do not have a conveyor on it so the hot chip is always washed with the coolant.

now the question... did anyone ever rigged up a coolant fluid cooler to their CNC? I was thinking about having a car radiator placed in the coolant circuit with a fan... I think it will help but wont be enough. what do you think?

any advices?

Thanks again!

[mc-motorsports]

This is basically what they do as far as water cooled spindel's. I don't see why it wouldn't work for your application. Usually they use a "tube and fin" design, more like an oil cooler than an automotive radiator. Try an oil cooler and maybe if you can't find a fan small enough, look for an "intercooler" fan.
Michael

[rubianroaddog]

HI,
Oil coolers are a commonly used add on for motorcycles, try one of those, and if you are struggling for fans for such a device, rig a 12V supply and steal a hard drive cooler from your PC, they come with fans and heatsinks, just bolt the thing on.
Cheers,
Mick

[bowber]

A car radiator with a fan will be more than enough, your lathe shouldn't be creating as much heat as burning petrol.

I'd try the oil cooler idea or cheaper would be a heater matrix from a scrap car.

Steve

[RedGTZ]

thanks for the reply guys I guess I'll try the car radiator. IMO the bike oil cooler will be too small for sure. Keep in mind that a big psrt of the power of the machine is transfered in heat in the cutting process and that heats up the coolant fast.

[Baketech]

Very easy to clog up a flat-tube radiator (automotive coolant type) with swarf, sludge, etc. And nearly impossible to clean out... :twocents:

Better to use a round-tube type like an oil cooler or transmission cooler...

[seidlry]

If it gets that hot I suppose you could the a a/c unit from a house .
that would give you the fan as well. Try to keep the fluid under pressure as it cools more efficiently under pressure. Good Luck

[gus]

perhaps you can figure how to add more coolant. If you had a much larger reservoir it would ease the problem.

Another thing, it does sound awfully fast to heat up. try running the pump without cutting parts. Perhaps the pump is heating up.

[machintek]

Will you be using the flood pump to first go through the heat exchanger, then to the tool?
I admit that the coolant tank is too small. Two options I see.
A radiator in the coolant tank with a separate fluid going to a radiator, pump, fan etc outside the coolant tank.
Or as has been said, an external heat exchanger but I would use something like a whole house water filter with a clear bowl to prevent blockage of the heat exchanger. You may want to consider a separate circulation pump so it is working any time the machine is on.

George

[BILLFUNK29]

Home baseboard hot water heat has a finned copper tube. It's 3/4" tubing which is likely the size of your delivery lines. Big enough to not clog and easier to clean it it did. Mc master sells it.

[RedGTZ]

I agree that a car radiator would clog too easy on that application. I want to go with the heat exchanger type of install since having a coolang radiator plunged into the tank would reduce the coolant quantity even more, the heat exchanger type adds coolant to the system so it can only help.

I've talk to a freind who is work in a shop where they have a Mazak Multiplex 2 chuck lathe (machining at the same time) with a robot to load the parts. He told me they had the same problem when they received the machine and they had to add a cooler for the coolant. He will be taking a look at this system this week and get back to me

Thanks for your poste guys I hope this may help somebody else also.

[RedGTZ]

Take a look at this... I'm pretty sure this is exactly what I need just need to hook a good fan to it and a second pump.

http://cgi.ebay.com/200K-BTU-Water-t...QQcmdZViewItem





What do you guys think?