"El Cheapo" Coolant System for Mini-Mill

[jcrous]

I am now making an El Cheapo coolant system for my mini-mill
I have made a drip tray of 40mm high with a boat basin drain that will go to a bucket with a piece of pipe. The bucket will be of a size that will be fixed to the side of my mill stand.

Inside will be a fountain water feature pump that will lead the water to a mill cooland spout, equiped with a small tap. I will direct the water to the spot where the cutter meets the work piece. The pump at its slowest setting is a little strong, but closing the tap a bit control the water flow.

The mill is mounted on spacers, on top of the drip tray, equiped with silicone washers. I will also waterproof it further with a proper sealant tomorrow and test the dqay after tomorrow.

The pump can deliver up to a 1000l / hour. I am aware that there will remain a little water in the drip tray that will evaporates during the day because of very hot conditions, as well as due to spatter, but the loss will be minimal. At least now my cutters will remain cool.

Any other ideas? Any points I have to take in account?

[micktoon]

 Hi there Jcrous, probably too late for you now, as it seems like your system will work fine  but in case anyone else wants a super simple and cheap coolant system, this one way of doing it  .

   A friend of mine has a plastic water tank mounted above his lathe on the wall, it will hold  say 5 gallons maybe more ?, with an outlet at the bottom with flexible hose going into a normal coolant adjustable pipe set up with a tap and nozzle on the lathe. He fills the tank with cutting oil and it drains by gravity through the hose and nozzle as needed once the tap is opened, it then drains into the lathe suds tray then drains from here into a further plastic container under the lathe , when this is getting full , hence the top tank getting empty, he pumps it back up to the top tank with a small pump from the £1 shop, the type that you attach a hose to to the inlet and outlet and has a drive shaft that an electric or battery drill chucks onto and rotates the pump.
  He has used it for years and gives enough flow to do the job , plus there is almost nothing to go wrong 

  Cheers Mick

[doubleboost]

Hi
Johan
I used a fountain pump on a lathe for years with no problems at all
John

[jiihoo]

Hi Johan,

I have a thought. If you had to restrict the flow of the pump too much to get the trickle of coolant you wanted, the pump might not like it. If you feel that is happening, you could make a by-pass by putting a T-fitting right after the pump and letting the by-pass flow directly back to the bucket. The by-pass flow would have to be restricted a little bit too, me thinks, so it wouldn't flow too freely.

Cheers, Jari

[mattinker]

I too have used a fountain pump as a coolant pump for the last eight on my 6X4 bandsaw. The pump outlet includes an adjustable by-pass to regulate flow.

Regards, Matthew

[jcrous]

Here is the results:

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=78860#1355999

[jcrous]

I have milled for about an hour today. The motor keeps moderately cool and the cutter remains cold. IT works, even for a homemade carbide insert dovetail cuter. However I have ruined the cutter that ran too hot before the coolant. Tapping fluid as a coolant did not cooled it down enough. The cutter, after sharpened will again be excellent for aluminium and brass.

[CrazyModder]

Hello Johan,

very nice use of limited resources for a job that actually does not need more resources. I am currently building the same setup as yours (even my spout seems to be exactly the same, as well as the fittings).

What I have not yet decided upon at all is how to make the tray. First, my column goes below the table, i.e., the table has a big hole to allow the column to sink down. Second, I'm not sure how to avoid the coolant pooling on the tray and just staying there; the lower body of my machine does not seem to lend itself well to be raised on posts like you did.

My machine is this (well, not the actual one, but just like this): http://www.ischbinz.de/maschinenpark/P1010016.JPG

[jcrous]

Two pieces of square tubing can replace my posts or even channeling.