Super mini mill/coolant tank

[taylors]

Has anybody figured out a way to keep small chips out of there coolant tank on the super mini mill. I also have a VF-2 and I run a system from chip trap on that one. The size of part and chips that I make are very small. And it seams like I have to clean out the tank on the mini mill once a month.

[Dugg]

I thought about blocking off the slots that allow coolant to return to the tank. Then to build a shallow settling sump and filter arrangement and another pump to then send the collant back via a hose to the main tank.
This return pump could be wired through a relay to be controlled by M8/M9 from the main collant pump circuit. Or, allowed to run a bit longer than M9 with a timer, but would then require logic to keep the pump on after M9 shuts down the main pump..... a latching relay??

[automizer]

where I'm at we have had chip problems with a few machines and a simple fix was to take a full sheet of scotch bright and cover the gate filter scrub it out as part of the morning routine works pretty well.

[daleman]

we use some pretty fine mesh over the drain holes simalar to that which is used on the filter gate on the pump we have made it removeable so that the mesh can be cleaned easily

[duenow]

Originally Posted by taylors Has anybody figured out a way to keep small chips out of there coolant tank on the super mini mill. I also have a VF-2 and I run a system from chip trap on that one. The size of part and chips that I make are very small. And it seams like I have to clean out the tank on the mini mill once a month.

I just put down some cut strips of the chip trap filters over the drain slots.
That works very good.

[taylors]

Originally Posted by duenow I just put down some cut strips of the chip trap filters over the drain slots. That works very good.

Thats a good easy idea. I will try it.
Thanks
Scott

[automizer]

Originally Posted by duenow I just put down some cut strips of the chip trap filters over the drain slots. That works very good.

We tried this as well with less popular results, it was hard to clean the chips off the screen as the machine was running. The best we found was a hand broom to clean them and this still did not work great. What are you using to clean the chips out with?

[duenow]

Originally Posted by automizer We tried this as well with less popular results, it was hard to clean the chips off the screen as the machine was running. The best we found was a hand broom to clean them and this still did not work great. What are you using to clean the chips out with?

The filters we just pull out after a while & put new ones in. The "Chip Trap" filters are cheap & I cut them & put over the "slots" cut in the Mini mill for the drain. I only run small parts & the chips are very small. The "Chip trap" filters are not a screen. That is one thing about the Mini mill that I don't like.

[automizer]

O I see. We had done something like that for a large run of Delrin but it came to much of a problem with the aluminum