COOLANT ADVICE

[mcamiller]

I'm looking for opinions on coolant types. I have spindles between 8k &12k and run 95% aluminum. Normal ops: Destiny endmills, high speed carbide & TiN coated drills, quite a few form taps. We've had Blasocut, Hangsterfer, some cheapo crappy stuff, and Wallover. Personally, i prefer Hangsterfer. It runs great and keeps everything clean and leaves no gummy film. Wallover leaves a discoloring film on everything.
I welcome any advice on brands, concentration, skimmers, up-keep, anti-bacteria additive, etc....
thanks all!

[SRT Mike]

Originally Posted by mcamiller I'm looking for opinions on coolant types. I have spindles between 8k &12k and run 95% aluminum. Normal ops: Destiny endmills, high speed carbide & TiN coated drills, quite a few form taps. We've had Blasocut, Hangsterfer, some cheapo crappy stuff, and Wallover. Personally, i prefer Hangsterfer. It runs great and keeps everything clean and leaves no gummy film. Wallover leaves a discoloring film on everything. I welcome any advice on brands, concentration, skimmers, up-keep, anti-bacteria additive, etc.... thanks all!

I use Blasocut 2000 series on a VMC and CNC lathe for working with mostly acrylic and 6061 aluminum, with a little bit of stainless thrown in and the occasional other (titanium, delrin, etc). I like it - it smells real nice when you mix it but it does turn kinda nasty after a week or so. It doesn't foam which is nice but it is kinda expensive and leaves a bit of a gummy film on parts if not washed off quickly.

The machinist next door to me uses Hangsterfers and likes it - I think its cheaper too (maybe I ought to try it?). I used to use Valcool but it was a mess - worked OK but foamed like crazy, then Valenite changed their part numbers and I couldn't figure out which coolant I had been using for all that time so I switched to Blaser that we use now.

Mind if I ask how much the Hangsterfers runs you?

EDIT: I never tried any additives although I had heard that the anti-foam was similar to stuff you can buy at the grocery store??? I find that running it slightly thick gives LESS foaming (I know - counter intuitive but we have proven it true for us) so we usually run it around 8-10% but we aren't that careful to check it every week or anything - you can usually tell when it gets thin. We change it out maybe every 12-18 months, but we machine tons of acrylic. The chips really soak up the coolant so we're constantly adding more, so we are able to run it longer before a total change out. It sure does smell nice when you do a total changeout though (of course I mean AFTER the change - during the change it stinks!)

We get very little tramp oil on the mill but we get a TON on the lathe and I use a belt skimmer (basically a gear up top turning a toothed belt that lowers into the tray) and it works pretty good... just don't leave it unattended like I did once, only to find a big puddle of oil all over the floor!

[Bluesman]

Trimsol in my opinion is the best, It is exspensive so I can not buy it here whre I work. But in the day when I was working in prototype shops and doing the hig precision wokr we always used Trim-Sol they make a bunch of difrent types but this one i attatched here works in any application and any matieral

Bluesman

[Mussel Kar]

The tennant before me went OOB and left behind an almost full drum of Blaser Swisslube. They cut 99% aluminum. I put it in my VTC300C because it was free. Didn't like the smell when new, gave me a headache. Also the mist caused me to cough up a lung the next morning if I wasn't carefull, mostly after machining aluminum. I bought 2 Jet air cleaners and mounted one to each side of the enclosure and that helped tons. Coolant is still in the machine after 6 years, time to change it. I does not smell too bad and the machine is run a few hours and only once in a while. Often sits for weeks unused.

[mcamiller]

thanks for the advice. for those wanting to know, the Hangsterfer Neosol 200 CF runs about $950/55gallon drum. i run about 7% and, when changed over properly, it instantly cleans the machine and leaves no residue on the machine or the parts.

[little bubba]

Originally Posted by SRT Mike - it smells real nice when you mix it but it does turn kinda nasty after a week or so.

Mike, what are you doing to make it go nasty in a week? I've got machines sitting here that may not do anything for a couple of weeks and they are fine.

Are you peeing in it? Is somebody else peeing in it? Tobacco spit? Food? Are you cleaning the insided of the machine with any kind of cleaner? (If you are, DON'T).

I had over 3 years on a 120 gallon sump, that started with 2000 series blaser and then went to 4000 series. It was still going strong when I left, and I DID NOT maintain it properly. I simply kept all foreign matter out and watched my concentrations.

BTW 99% of the stink(not the stink you can smell out front on the street, but a bit musky) issues I've ever had with Blaser is the concentration getting low. Give it a fresh charge, and it goes away in about 2 seconds.

[SRT Mike]

Originally Posted by little bubba Mike, what are you doing to make it go nasty in a week? I've got machines sitting here that may not do anything for a couple of weeks and they are fine. Are you peeing in it? Is somebody else peeing in it? Tobacco spit? Food? Are you cleaning the insided of the machine with any kind of cleaner? (If you are, DON'T). I had over 3 years on a 120 gallon sump, that started with 2000 series blaser and then went to 4000 series. It was still going strong when I left, and I DID NOT maintain it properly. I simply kept all foreign matter out and watched my concentrations. BTW 99% of the stink(not the stink you can smell out front on the street, but a bit musky) issues I've ever had with Blaser is the concentration getting low. Give it a fresh charge, and it goes away in about 2 seconds.

You hit the nail on the head - it is the concentration

We machine a lot of acrylic and the chips are like a sponge, so I put them in a drainage barrel and let the coolant flow back into the sump. And when it gets low and I add coolant (which is about once a week at least), I just pour water in the top of the drainage barrel and mix it around to help get a lot of the coolant residue off the chips (the chips are orangey-yellow and once I flush them with water they are sparkling white). So yep, my concentration does vary a bit and when I add more coolant by actually mixing coolant/water, I use the gauge to get the concentration and get it right again.

It's not so much that it stinks (I've smelled some nasty coolant!) it's more that it loses it's sweet candy-like smell even if the concentration is OK... it smells great when new, that smell wears off after a week or so but it doesn't really stink unless the concentration goes low and it sits for a while.