"Hey Mister" Mister

[cathead]

I thought I would give a water misting sprayer a try so here is a photo of the unit. It seemed logical
to mount the mister on the indexing bar since the mister would easily be movable or removed if desired.
Water is an excellent coolant, much better than oil but probably not much lubrication. Water in order
to change state from liquid to a gas if I remember correctly from physics lab requires 540 calories per gram.
That's a lot of cooling. I have not actually used it yet but it does shoot out a nice mist and it is very
aimable and controllable as to the amount of volume. It might be great to keep a tool cool during
some hard to machine material, maybe like stainless. I havn't machined much stainless so that will be a new experience. These units are available very inexpensively (under $10 delivered). Basically you apply
air pressure to the unit and it will siphon water through a small hose and mix it with the air blast.

I call it my "Hey Mister".View media item 95737

Edit: I took my nozzle apart and found there is a small plastic tube inside the purple bendable
thing. There are different designs out there so I would look closely at the photos before you buy one. That way the mist is generated at the tip and the brass nozzle gives some control to the
spray.

 

[Mark_f]

Wonder if it would work using WD 40? Where do you get this gadget from?

 

[cathead]

Wonder if it would work using WD 40? Where do you get this gadget from?

Mark,

Yes, it would work but it would be pretty gassy in the shop if you used it much. Also it would not cool like water would.
If you look on E-Bay, there are lots of them on there, do a search for "mist coolant spray system". It will be fun
to experiment with. I have some home made cutters that are not HSS (just machined and then case hardened). I find they
are excellent cutters but if you ever get them hot, they lose their edge. I know the mist system will be good for them.

Another thought: WD-40 is quite flammable and could result in a fire if the work or cutter
reached ignition temperature. It could be quite spectacular with a big air stream and
flammables mixed and expelled. I don't think it would be a recommended thing to try.

 

[royesses]

I wonder if propylene glycol would work in a water mix. To help stop rusting? Used it in my old tig for torch cooling. Never had any rust on steel parts. Low freeze point.

Roy

 

[Terrywerm]

I have two fogless misters that I built, one for Rustlick or Kool Mist and one for WD-40. I only use WD-40 for working with aluminum, and I always make sure that I am spraying small droplets instead of a fine mist. No matter what I use for a coolant, I'm not interested in breathing the stuff.

 

[cathead]

I wonder if propylene glycol would work in a water mix. To help stop rusting? Used it in my old tig for torch cooling. Never had any rust on steel parts. Low freeze point.

Roy

Whatever you mix would be aspirated by the operator so one would need to give the subject some consideration.
I know water would not have any safety concerns.

 

[royesses]

Whatever you mix would be aspirated by the operator so one would need to give the subject some consideration.
I know water would not have any safety concerns.

Supposedly propylene glycol is not toxic, I'll need to research it again. It is also used in cigar humidors.

Found this:

Propylene glycol (C3H8O2) is an almost odorless clear, colorless, syrupy synthetic liquid with a slightly sweet taste. It is used to absorb water. Propylene glycol has many industrial uses and is classified as a food additive generally recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

It was just a thought. Probably not a great Idea. Thanx for the reply!

 

[Terrywerm]

Propylene glycol might safe when ingested, but may pose hazards when inhaled. Charcoal won't hurt you when you eat it, in fact it is used for removing ingested poisons, but inhaling it's dust over time has grave effects. Same thing with grain dust.

I think I would look into the effects of inhaling propylene glycol in greater detail before using it, just to be safe.

When it comes to WD-40 or Kool Mist or similar, I wouldn't want to inhale those either, thus I apply coolant in small droplets with very low air pressure and not as a mist.

 

[cathead]

Propylene glycol might safe when ingested, but may pose hazards when inhaled. Charcoal won't hurt you when you eat it, in fact it is used for removing ingested poisons, but inhaling it's dust over time has grave effects. Same thing with grain dust.

I think I would look into the effects of inhaling propylene glycol in greater detail before using it, just to be safe.

When it comes to WD-40 or Kool Mist or similar, I wouldn't want to inhale those either, thus I apply coolant in small droplets with very low air pressure and not as a mist.

I looked at the MSDS sheets on propylene glycol and it is relatively safe. I found it is what the makes the "smoke" in E-cigarettes
so in that respect is relatively safe, but then how safe are E-Cigarettes? I guess it is fairly low on the totem pole of hazardous
substances compared to Chromium-6 that unknowing machinists expose themselves to.

 

[Terrywerm]

I'll agree it is probably pretty low on the hazard list, but it's still important to do our homework, as you obviously have.