skimmer

[fourperf]

I figure I should start a new thread to find out who uses a skimmer, what brand and how does it mount? My fadal had a slot cut into the coolant tank for a disc style skimmer. I have the 50 gal coolant tank

thanks

mark

[Geof]

My advise; don't buy one yet.

We tried them but found they have a couple of limitations:

One is that the coolant has to settle for longer than just overnight for the tramp oil to effectively come to the surface. It could be possible to set something up with a timer so that the skimmer turned on early Monday morning and skimmed off the oil that had risen over the weekend but then you come to limitation two.

The skimmer does drag out a lot of coolant, or at least ours did; up to 30% coolant in the skimmed oil.

We do use skimmers but not on the machines. They are used on the waste coolant tanks and we double skim so that the tramp oil is clean enough to go out as just waste oil and the coolant is clean enough to go into an evaporator to reduce the volume so it can go out as oil and water.

If someone else has other information I am all ears; waste coolant and tramp oil are a pain we have not managed to really adequately handle yet. Well that is not quite correct...we handle it but at a cost of several thousand dollars a year because the oil recycling people charge a lot to take away oil and water.

[fourperf]

I was thinking that if I dont use the machine for 3 or four weeks (which is possible as I travel a lot in my work) What are the best ways to maintain my coolant. I figured a skimmer and a aquarium pump. Maybe greg will have a suggestion too as I think his machine sits for long periods also. I am using blaser universal 2000 which seemed to work really well today. great finish on my parts and quite a pleasant smell. Hopefully I wont come out tomorrow to a rusty machine.

mark

mark

[Geof]

If you stop to think about it for a little bit an aquarium pump and a skimmer are contradictory; one is intended to keep the coolant agitated and oxygenated the other wants it to settle and be still for the tramp moil to separate.

I have found with the machine in my prototype shop that in cool weather, probably frigid from your perspective, the coolant is perfectly happy just sitting there. In the summer when we can get high seventies and low eighties it will go off when it stands for three or four weeks.

I think you will need to experiment; aquarium pump only for several months and see what happens; skimmer only for several months and see what happens.

Regarding rust I think you will find you need to go to a higher concentration than the coolant manufacturer recommends to prevent rust. There has been several threads on coolants, this topic did arise and that seemed to be the concensus.

[fourperf]

that all makes sense. Thanks a lot geof

mark

[Donkey Hotey]

As mentioned before, I'm running Vasco 1000 and distilled water. I do absolutely nothing to it. It sits for 30 days or more at a time. It's been changed once in three years. I've had no problems with odors or mold growth. Based on what I've read about other coolants, I'm amazed with its biological performance.

Corrosion has been absolutely minimal. I got some very faint, minor rust spots on the way covers. Steel wool cleaned them up (it did leave faint gray marks) and the table has been rust free. Again, better than I would expect for how I've neglected it.

I think the Vasco is a good, stable formula and that the distilled water has helped to keep it clean. This latest round of parts that I just made was the first time it was fired up since early December. I added 10 gallons of distilled water to bring the concentration back down to 10%, ran the pump and went to work. I got some buttery, odorless residue in the cabinet at first but I think that was the vegetable oil clumping. It eventually broke down and started circulating again.

[PBMW]

If you think you MUST have a skimmer, my Daewoo lathe has a belt skimmer. Works very well and it removes very little coolant.

[fourperf]

I think I will go without a skimmer for a while and see how it does. Thanks a lot for the replies

mark