coolant questions

[truckmann4x4]

I currently use liquid ice coolant in 4 HAAS mills and 1 HASS lathe. I was approached by a Hangsterfer coolant salesman and I wanted some opinions on a good coolant. We arent too busy of a shop so some machines dont run every week. Any good sugestions/experiences?

[PixMan]

Well, which of their products was he pushing? Full synthetic, semi-synthetic, or water-soluble oil? What materials do you run?

Sounds like you need long sump life for one thing, but other factors include your budget, materials you run, operations on that work, and disposal costs.

I've got a home-shop environment, and have a manual lathe. To say it doesn't run every day would be a gross understatement....it sits for weeks without running coolant. I'm using the Valenite ValCool VP-Tech semi-synthetic. It's fairly inexpensive (fits my budget, which is thin to say the least), and has incredible sump life. It's been in there a year and still looks like the day I put it in. I run anything that falls in the door, from aluminum to brass to steel and stainless. The VP-Tech works great on everything, and doesn't stain.

[davereagan]

I've never had a synthetic that was any good for tapping and I've tried a few. If you want to do tapping with flood coolant and you're leaning toward synthetic, make sure he specifically guanrantees is to work. I once used Missile Lube which is vegetable based by Hangsterfer's. It was a great fluid, just expensive.

[PixMan]

I've never used any coolant for tapping other than straight cutting oil that was in the CNC Swiss machines I ran. I have a bottle of ValTap for that at home.

Some coolants today have EP additives (chlorinated ones are that, for instance) and are OK for tapping, but there's always going to be a compromise in using low-viscosity coolants in place of high-viscosity cutting fluids.

Tapping, especially with form taps, is such a high-pressure operation that in the low-volume shop it's just safer to use a task-specific tapping fluid. If you're in a high-production environment and need to do a lot of tapping in-cycle, I'd recommend a chlorinated soluble oil coolant over any synthetic or semi-synthetic.

[RLamb]

I have a 5 man shop running 5 VMC's and 2 Turning Centers.

I put Valenite VPTech 005B in these machines about a year ago. I prepped every machine as they suggested and even used bleach to spray everything the coolant might come in contact with so I know everything is clean to start. It has been an absolute nightmare ever since. First, the blue coolant stained the paint on the machines. I have blue streaks all over the equipment now. Then within a month, we had a black & brown slime appear floating in the tanks on a Monday morning. Even the insides of the cabinets had a brown film stuck to it. I called the Valenite Coolant Rep in. (This was the first problem... getting them to return a call or keep an appointment as promised. Weeks would go by and only after you call them repeatedly do they call back). He took a sample with him to test. He said he had it tested and said it was not bacterial so it was nothing to worry about. BS. His "solution" was to skim the slime off daily with an aquarium net. I even went so far as pumping each machine again, cleaning them and refilling them. (I used Simple Green to clean the entire machine, - sump, cabinet, machine, everything then used the Valenite sump cleaner they recommend and finally sprayed every surface with straight bleach. The next day we refilled the machines. The result was the same, the same slime appeared within a month. The Rep tells me that we are doing everything right but our problem is the water. I explained to him that we use RO (reverse osmosis) water only. There is nothing in it but hydrogen and oxygen - no minerals, no dissolved solids, nothing). He suggested we get our water tested at a cost of $1,000.

I changed one machine over to Castrol MB50, another semi-synthetic. So far it has been in that machine for 9 weeks and is a clean and healthy as it was when we started. I really like this stuff. It is a little more expensive but the long term savings, (especially maintenance), is certainly there.

I called the Valenite Rep and told him that I did not believe the problem was our water. I explained the great results with the Castrol product. He suggested that perhaps the Castrol was "more tolerant" than Valenite of water impurities. More BS in my opinion.

I have since changed over another machine to Castrol. It works better, is cleaner, doesn't smell bad, has a great sump life and stays healthy. Even the guys like it better, saying it doesn't leave a slimy feeling on their hands. I used up the last of the Valenite and have ordered more Castrol MB50. I will be changing over all the equipment, one at a time, to Castrol and NEVER return to Valenite.

[autotrol9]

Has anyone used Rustlick products? Any comments on PowerChip 2000 coolant for stainless steel?

Thanks

Jerry

[BlaserSwisslube]

Dear RLamb,

It shouldn't cost anyone $1000 to test their water! It's a very simple test, which Blaser Swisslube provides free to any of our current or prospective customers.

For what it's worth.,.

Best regards,

Brett Reynolds, CMFS
Sr. Applications Engineer - West
Customer Service
Blaser Swisslube Inc.

[John_B]

I run the Liquid Ice as well in a few machines, and have switched to Cimcool and some others to see if I could control the corrosion I've been fighting - but I'm going back to Liquid Ice on the few I've been testing others on. The Liquid Ice does stay good in the sump for a long time in my opinion, I have one lathe that has about one year on its batch in the sump - but then none of my machine set for more than a week or so...

I had changed from Hangsterfers after many years of real sour sumps, people getting rashes, and a film on everything in the shop. I can't recommend any of their products to be honest.

Are you having issues with the L.I. or are you just looking to try other stuff out?

[PixMan]

I gotta say, I'm really surprised and confused about RLamb's experience with the ValCool products. I've met their Coolant Specialist, and he offered to test our water for free. We didn't actually need to because the VP-Tech has just been so reliable and stable. I find the replenishment rates to be in the 1.4% to 2% range to maintain 8% overall concentricity. That rate indicates very low carryout, and that's evidenced by not having sticky parts on the bench after air blowing the coolant off.