Problem- Bar feeder oil in my coolant!!

[mashteuiash]

Hello everyone, I hope you guys can help me with this.

We have an IEMCA bar feeder, with a Hyundai turning center. The parts that we run, range in length from 8" long to 72" long and from 20mm OD to 40mm OD.

The problem is that when we run long parts, we transfer a lot of the oil from the bar feeder right into our lathe and into the coolant. On the last job, we ran 5 parts 48" long, and it totally ruined my coolant. I mean our coolant went from nice and clean to filled with oil in 20 minutes. We have put a skimmer on the tank, and it does a good job when we run the short parts, but after running a few long parts, it takes a full day of skimming before the coolant tank looks decent.

An other issue is that we have to refill our bar feeder with costly oil, more often then I care to.

I am wondering if anyone as run into this kind of issue before and if there is anything out there that can wipe the oil off the bar before it exits the bar feeder?

Thank you in advance for you input.

Steve

[underthetire]

Common problem on that type of bar feeder. You could try putting one or two of these on the front of the feeder.

Linear Strip Brushes and other Strip Brushes at MSCDirect.com.

[wmpy]

mashteuiash, did you ever resolve this issue? I'm looking into how I can get less oil from the bar feeders mixing into the coolant of my lathes, although my parts aren't nearly as long as yours are. I have one FMB bar loader that has an air blow off that turns on whenever the loader is pushing. I just aim some nozzles to try to push whatever oil is on the bar back into the loader. This works ok, but not great. I need to get a better nozzle setup. Exair makes a sweet looking circular air knife that would be perfect for this if it weren't so darn expensive. Check it out here. Air Wipes: 360 degree blowoff removes excess water and coatings from pipes, tubes, hose, wire.
I don't think it would be too difficult to wire up a solenoid to blow air onto the bar every time the collet opens. I've been thinking of doing this on my single hydrodynamic bar feeders.
I've also been toying with the idea of trying out different oils to try to find one that still has the recommended viscosity but tends to cling to the bar less. I don't know much about oils, so this might be more time-consuming than it's worth. If anyone has an idea on this, I'd love to hear it.
Actually, if you're not going up to the max rated rpm of your Iemca, you may be able to get away with switching to a lower viscosity oil. What are you using now? My bar feeders either recommend ISO VG 68 or 100. A lower viscosity oil would definitely cling less, but you run the risk of tearing up the liner in your bar feeder. I would contact the manufacturer to see what they say.
The only other idea I have is to make a neoprene or some sort of soft rubber washer that fits closely to the bar. Mount this inside the bar feeder right before the bar exits. It would act as a wiper. The only problem would be when the larger diameter pusher tries to comes through it. The washer would have to be a soft enough material so that it stretches around the pusher, or it would have to be slotted so that the pusher could push through it.
Please let me know how your situation is working out. Also, I'd be very interested to hear more about your process. Making 72" long parts off the bar sounds like quite a challenge. How do you unload those automatically? Through a sub-spindle?

[D_csypher]

has your problem been fixed?

one thing to consider is changing when the bar feeder stops the oil pump...the manufacturer setting for when the pump will stop feeding the guide channels is when the pusher collet exits the channels, if your running consistently running long parts, then you may be able to do it earlier...

if you see that the pusher collet is never within lets say the last foot of the guide channels while maching due to part length, then i would have the pump stop earleir, may only be for a second or so during the final push, but could have a noticable difference

another thing to consider is having your half-bushings close earlier and ensuring theyre as small as possible, this will help "wipe" off the bar as it passes through

hope this helps

[keebler303]

If you aren't changing bar stock sizes too often, you could just get a variety of standard oil seals from an industrial supply place and just swap them out to fit the bar. They could be pressed into some sort of standard bushing or plate to make the changeover quite easy. This would give you a pretty reliable scrape around the bar to remove the majority of the oil.

Matt

[hitachibos]

we run a oil cutting fluid in our lathes not water soluble.

it is from Motorex ortho fx10 its non clorinated and does not seem to ruin rubber seals or anything else on the machines.

we also changed out the hydraulic oil needed in our bar feeder to the same cutting oil

now if it mixes it doesnt matter you just have to make sure the lathe sump does not get too full