Coolant questons

[DRD]

We have a our first Haas mill on order, a vf3. What maker of coolant have you guys had good luck with not attacking the paint on cnc machines?
9 out of 10 cnc machines I have seen used, the paint has been eating away by the coolant. We will be cutting AL castings, at pretty low speed around 3000 rpm, and around 30-40 ipm.

Thanks for the info.

[Cory]

We use Blaser 2000 universal.

Smells good. Hasn't peeled off any paint. Hasn't gone bad. Foams a little bit when there's a lot of it in the enclosure.

[locash]

Just so you know, my 11 month old HAAS VF2 is losing paint, and I only use Hangsteffers S500CF.. I plan on switching to the Blazer 2000 coolant soon, if my Blazer rep would get me the coolant I ordered last month!

[JROM]

Take a look at Trimsol E206. I've been using it for years on all types of work.
No skin problems not much smell and it's so mild they say you could drink it and it would not hurt you. There are lots of good products out there. This just happens to be my choice. Goodluck

[Donkey Hotey]

Vasco 1000 has been good to me (but it's pricey). It's vegetable based but hasn't had any noticeable bacteria problems in three years. It makes my hands itch and a bit tender but it hasn't eaten the paint. There's also very little metal corrosion on the table or way covers.

It's given me acceptable finish on aluminum. When the mist dries to the outside of the cabinet it gets very sticky but I've found that regular household Isopropyl Alcohol (in diluted form like you buy at the store) will take it right off without harming the paint.

I have no experience with anything else since this was my first machine but it hasn't given me any reasons to switch.

[Vern Smith]

I have had good luck with Castrol Hysol MB50. I've attached spec sheets. Castrol's web site says this product was specifically developed for machining aluminum engine part castings for the automobile industry. I would think this to be right up your alley. In 6 months I have not seen any affect on the paint or any rust or corrosion under the vises or way covers. I mix it 10 plus % because I do a lot of tapping. No unpleasant odor or foaming. I do mix it with filtered water. Here in Florida the tap water can petrify something in a matter of weeks.

Vern

[Donkey Hotey]

Originally Posted by Vern Smith I do mix it with filtered water.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I do the same. I buy cases of distilled water from WalMart. It costs about $15 to buy enough to fill the machine and a few for top-off. It keeps the coolant from getting 'harder' as the water evaporates and that extends the life of the coolant additives.

[davereagan]

Any coolant with some oil should be good, whether soluble or semi-synthetic. You might try www.enco-direct.com and check our their Oak Flo line, which used to be Valenite's Val Cool line. Turn Tech is semi synthetic and has chlorine, which is more helpful for down the drill lubrication of drills in steels. Aside from the coolant, why only 3000-4000 rpm and 30-40 ipm with aluminum? Is it a flimsy setup?

[ckirchen]

I use Oak Signature DSO650 and it works well. http://www.oakinternational.com/signature/about_us.html

I used to swear by Valcool 650, but that was when Milacron was making it for Valenite (they now make Oak Signature). Valenite took over the manufacturing from Milacron and did something wrong . I found this out when I finished my last bucket of Milacron-made Valcool 650 and the toolshop sold me Valenite-made. It didn't seem to mix right when I filled the tank, but I didn't think anything of it. A week later (the coolant pump was used daily), the tank had an faint odour and when I looked inside, there was a brown sludge floating on the surface.

The toolshop has stopped carrying Valcool and has replaced it with Oak Signature.

Chris Kirchen

[pup96]

Hi, I dont remember exactly what I used in the VF-3's I used to run. I didnt order it so I am not sure the right name, but they always told me it was called SOL. It didnt eat the paint on the machine and was pretty easy to clean off. The only problem was that it mixed with the trap oils the machines leaked from the lub system. The coolent would turn green and start to stink pretty bad. Not to mention make my face break out really bad. About the time I left, a couple months, I started straining the trap oils out of the back of the tank in the mornings. I always would start them up, and run the spindle with a spot drill at 1000rpms to warm it up, this gave me a couple minutes to strain the oil. After a couple weeks the coolant was blue again and stopped stinking. I stopped breaking out and the tooling started lasting longer. I had a hard time convincing the supervisor that I wasn't pumping it out and throwing it away cause it had aways stunk so bad. I help them start a recover program where they pumped the tanks dry every week before the weekend, then they would take the top off and dispose of it, and put it the good stuff back in the machines, there was a 2 weeks cycle, it worked out pretty good for them in the long run