[How do I?] Flood Coolant Cleanup?

Thanks rgray, that is exactly the mix I am shooting for is 10:1. How do you maintain your coolant concentration, I assume it will get a little richer as the water evaporates? I ordered a refractometer, but it isn't here yet. I'm a little worried about my ways because the coolant is getting under the carriage. I have just been wiping down and re-oiling when I get done for the day plus hitting the ball oilers when I feel it start to drag. As I'm going through the day I can feel the coolant washing the oil out from under the carriage, I'm looking for some better way wipers to try and exclude it from getting under the carriage. So far I really like the 585xt I have had chips in the pan for a week, some from 12L14 and I haven't seen any rust yet. Sure makes parting and heavy stock removal nicer, really allows me to speed up my work with the flood coolant going. I haven't ever heard of Everbrite but I will look it up. I just spray stuff down with wd40 when I clean up and then re-oil.
I did get brave a couple times last week and left chips sitting on the lathe overnight, but I did run the carriage back and forth and wiped the coolant up and re-oiled the ways under the carriage and tailstock. My next project is to try it on my surface grinders and see how it works there. I'm hoping to just have one coolant for everything.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic!
 
carlquib said:
My next project is to try it on my surface grinders and see how it works there
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I use it on the lathe, surface grinder,cylindrical grinder and 2 mills hrz & vrt. Just makes sense to have one fluid I figure.
I've never worried about concentration getting heavy. Been running it the longest in the lathe (3 years) and haven't noticed it getting any thicker. The lathe (M1112 shop fox) only holds about 2 gallons and it seems like I add a gallon about once a month.
On the cylindrical grinder about 2 gallons a month. Could be extra evaporation as the tank is mostly open on it, but it is a messy thing when running also. So it may just loose alot. I did recently fashion a rubber deflector for the right side to keep more fluid in it when it traverses to that side.

I've had a surface grinder for a couple of years with no coolant system. Just recently bought another with a coolant system. The tank is all cleaned up and filled but I have not ground with it yet. Needs a rear fence built and a part for the hyd valve switching.
The grinder came from a college and the coolant in it was very thick. So the thickening as evaporation happens may be what happened there but I don't know what coolant they ran.
 
rgray, you sound like you have the same kind of projects I do. I got another surface grinder recently and I have the coolant system cleaned and ready but I think I want to take the spindle motor off and have my local motor shop go through it. It seems to have a little more vibration than I would like. Plus I want to make sure the motor can take being run at 200% on a vfd so I can run smaller cheaper wheels.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic!
 
carlquib said:
It seems to have a little more vibration than I would like.
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Must be a spindle & motor combo unit? Both mine are belt driven. Defiantly don't want any vibration. You wouldn't get your use out of the sticker "machine may be running" That they put on them to warn people that don't realize they are turning cause they are so smooth.
 
Yep, it is a Bridgeport 8/15 sporting 12" wheels. My other grinders use 7" wheels, so I already have a large selection of those. Just wish I could find a cheaper option for wheel hubs. I guest I'm going to have to break down at some point and just make a bunch of them. I hate having to true the wheels and then rebalance them every time I change wheels. It amazes me how much you have to dress off sometimes.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic
 
Do the hubs interchange between grinders?
I got all my extra hubs off ebay cheap. They are not all that way but if patient you can probably find some. I would usually find them selling 4-6 at a time and I'd usually not pay any more than $20.00 each at the most.
If it's not that small standard hub then it will probably be hard to come across one.
I'd like to have an extra or 2 for my cylindrical grinder but have not found any thing for it.
 
Unfortunately they don't interchange. My other surface grinders use a balancing hub and the weights on the back won't let them go on far enough without hitting the back of the wheel guard. They do have the same spindle taper though.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic
 
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