For those who think all PM owners keep pristine equipment

Ray C said:
LOL: Clean Machine? NOT! Here's old faithful. Pretty sure I bought it in 2012 and it's seen nearly continuous, daily use for the last 6 years. Still rock solid and all I dois oil the ways and give it a half-decent cleaning every few weeks. Take that back... The 2 drive belts wore out and had to be replaced. I turned a shaft the other day that was spec'd for 1.250" +0.000, -0.001. Material was 1045 with starting diameter at 1.5". Nailed the final diameter at 1.2497 at the two critical race ways.

It ain't pretty but it can cut! I think I might paint it a different color some day. That eggshell white always looks dirty/grimy.


Ray C.

View attachment 250058
Click to expand...

What's the blue stuff in the bottle? And what type of system is it?
 
7milesup said:
What's the blue stuff in the bottle? And what type of system is it?
Click to expand...

Kool Mist. Started using it many years ago and never looked back. Hands-down the best cooling/lubricating system for lathe, mill and grinding work I've ever encountered. If you set it up like I have in the picture (with the bottle at roughly same level as the discharge nozzle), it will run on very little air. I used to wait hours for parts to cool or, make the final pass using expansion coefficient tables. Not any more... With Kool Mist, the parts are sometimes cold to the touch even after significant cutting. The amount in the blue bottle will last for several days of turning. No muss, no fuss, no slippery floors, no algae, no rotten smell, no skin reactions.

As with everything, there are little tricks to using it but, the learning curve is not complicated.


http://koolmist.com/portamist-wo-tank

Here is a knock-off clone. No experience with it but, see no reason why it's not a good functional substitute. The system is remarkably simple.

https://www.banggood.com/Mist-Coola...r-p-987371.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN


Regards

Ray C.
 
I'm ordering a Fogbuster for the lathe tomorrow. Love the one on my mill.
 
wrmiller said:
I'm ordering a Fogbuster for the lathe tomorrow. Love the one on my mill.
Click to expand...

Hi Bill...

FogBuster, Koolmist... Koolmist, Fogbuster. I'm pretty sure they are just competitive work-alikes that do evaporative cooling. If memory serves, they both hit the market around the same time. I'm guessing they each have their own brand of miracle juice, magical potion that keeps things cool. Truth be known, I ran out of KM solution and just ran water for a few days. It worked fine. Not recommended though as the real solutions have some rust retardants in them. An 8oz bottle of the KM stuff lasted over a year.



Regards

Ray C.
 
woodchucker said:
Wow, is that pricey.
Does it spit little droplets like it shows?
Click to expand...

I know you directed your question at the Chief Tinkerer (wrmiller)... hope you don't mind if I mention something related to your question.

There is nothing special (or new) about evaporative cooling. Evaporation releases and carries away more heat from the part vs. it just being doused in coolant. All of these systems (and there are others besides KM and FB) just deliver a small mist (or spritz or fog or droplett -or whatever their marketing department wants to call it) that easily evaporates when it hits a searing hot junction while a chip is being created. Early on, the KM systems were criticized because they made a fine mist that if run long enough, would raise the humidity in the shop. Duhhh... turn it off when the lathe is not cutting.

I raise the supply bottle to about the same level as the discharge tube, turn the air regulator on that line down to about 40 PSI and adjust the nozzles on the KM system way, way down. It spits out little droplets instead of a fine mist. I can reduce a piece of stainless down to nothing and the part will be +/- 10 degrees of room temperature. Of course, if you don't adjust the cut/carbide to put the heat in the chip, the part will get a little warm but, still cooler than with flood coolant alone.

Regards

Ray C.
 
woodchucker said:
Wow, is that pricey.
Does it spit little droplets like it shows?
Click to expand...

Yes, it spits droplets, no mist. It may or may not cool the part as well as a mister, but that's not why I use it. I use it to keep cutting fluid on the cutter and part. I run mine at about 8 PSI, and that keeps the droplets from getting all over the place.

When Mark did up a VFD control system to replace the one I hacked together, he added a circuit that can either enable the coolant only when the spindle is turning, or manually with a switch.

Yea, it's a bit spendy. Won't argue that.
 
Ray C said:
I know you directed your question at the Chief Tinkerer (wrmiller)... hope you don't mind if I mention something related to your question.

There is nothing special (or new) about evaporative cooling. Evaporation releases and carries away more heat from the part vs. it just being doused in coolant. All of these systems (and there are others besides KM and FB) just deliver a small mist (or spritz or fog or droplett -or whatever their marketing department wants to call it) that easily evaporates when it hits a searing hot junction while a chip is being created. Early on, the KM systems were criticized because they made a fine mist that if run long enough, would raise the humidity in the shop. Duhhh... turn it off when the lathe is not cutting.

I raise the supply bottle to about the same level as the discharge tube, turn the air regulator on that line down to about 40 PSI and adjust the nozzles on the KM system way, way down. It spits out little droplets instead of a fine mist. I can reduce a piece of stainless down to nothing and the part will be +/- 10 degrees of room temperature. Of course, if you don't adjust the cut/carbide to put the heat in the chip, the part will get a little warm but, still cooler than with flood coolant alone.

Regards

Ray C.
Click to expand...
Good explanation. I'm not there yet, Still use mostly HSS and oil, but am considering a coolant system.
 
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