Filtering coolant

[mcphill]

I never understood why there was no filter in the cooling loop. I mounted some new flexible coolant lines, and bought some different tips for them. I found that the tips would get clogged very quickly as the pump circulates "crap" through the whole system. I would have thought if Mikini intended there to be a filter, they would have included one (and at least a spare) with the machine (I confess I have not bothered to check the manual to see if they suggest a filter).

So, I decided to add my own filter. I bought the cheapest, largest air filter from Home Depot. I cut it down to 9.5 x 11.5 " and placed it at the bottom of the chip collection bin. That should do it. There is a ton of extra flow through the filter so as chips accumulate the fluid should have more than enough passages to flow out and to the pump. However, now small chips and wood pulp (I do machine a bit of wood on the machine) will get caught in the filter instead of being recirculated.

I would do one thing differently... I see now the filter I bought is "all natural fibers" and I think there are chunks of wood in it. Not the best for coolant. It also looks like the filter media is colored green, so I suspect it will bleed in to the coolant. I will likely source some filter media from a pet store instead (aquarium filter stock) in a synthetic material. That should hold up to the damp environment better, but it is the same idea.

Pix...

Media I have in there now:



Cut to size:



Tucked in and ready to filter:



Fotki link: http://public.fotki.com/mcphill/mcpi...lter-for-sump/

[SWATH]

Ahh that's why my coolant flow peters out after about 20 sec. I assumed it was because I didn't have enough volume getting back into the tank while it's pooling in the enclosure but this makes more sense. I just haven't looked into yet. You can see in my videos where the flow starts off strong then kind of tapers off to a sorry excuse.

[mcphill]

If you don't have enough coolant that slowdown will happen. That's how I know when I need to add water due to evaporation

There is quite a bit of fluid that gets held up in the base of the machine and in the upper tray - maybe as much as a gallon. I run the coolant about 2/3 the depth of the lower holding tank (and top back up to that when I starve the pump).