# Has anyone added flood cooling to a benchtop lathe?



## AmericanMachinist (Sep 11, 2020)

I have a Logqn 200 10" lathe with a chip pan and it sits on cast legs. 

I don't enjoy the smell of oil smoke and i am considering how to best add flood coolant. 

The lathe is indoors, so cleanliness will be key.  

Has anyone done this?


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## Ed ke6bnl (Sep 11, 2020)

AmericanMachinist said:


> I have a Logqn 200 10" lathe with a chip pan and it sits on cast legs.
> 
> I don't enjoy the smell of oil smoke and i am considering how to best add flood coolant.
> 
> ...


What about a Mist system


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## Ken from ontario (Sep 11, 2020)

I know what you mean about the smell of oil smoke , I did switch to a cheap mist system that seemed like a good solution at the time but it also came with its own drawbacks, I got tired of setting it up  and removing it every time I used my lathe, the cleanup of the mess was another problem I had to deal with .
It just was not too practical to use the mister so I put is away and went back to using cutting oil again.
In my limited experience a mist system is alright if it is permanently installed to your lathe and ready to use otherwise it is more practical to just use a few drops of oil and be done with it.


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## darkzero (Sep 11, 2020)

My lathe, mill, & bandsaw came with a flood coolant systems but I have no idea if they even work. I don't want to run flood coolant in my home garage.

I do spray on coolant manually sometimes. One thing to note is if your lathe has felt wipers be cautious of flood coolant, you can end up with chocolate milk on the ways. My lathe came with rubber wipers & I swapped them out to felt. Didn't realize what could happen until one time when I was spraying on a lot of coolant.


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## AmericanMachinist (Sep 11, 2020)

darkzero said:


> My lathe, mill, & bandsaw came with a flood coolant systems but I have no idea if they even work. I don't want to run flood coolant in my home garage.
> 
> I do spray on coolant manually sometimes. One thing to note is if your lathe has felt wipers be cautious of flood coolant, you can end up with chocolate milk on the ways. My lathe came with rubber wipers & I swapped them out to felt. Didn't realize what could happen until one time when I was spraying on a lot of coolant.


Thanks.  What's the concern with flood coolant?  I imagine it can be messy if slung from a part, but i wasn't keen on spray mist for a similar reason, not wanting to spray fine mist on adjacent surfaces.


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## darkzero (Sep 12, 2020)

AmericanMachinist said:


> Thanks.  What's the concern with flood coolant?  I imagine it can be messy if slung from a part, but i wasn't keen on spray mist for a similar reason, not wanting to spray fine mist on adjacent surfaces.



Messy sums it up. Can fly all over the place. If not used often it can go rancid & cause rust. I know they make anit-microbial products to help comabt that. Perhaps there are better products out today. I hear synthetic coolants are better for that. The coolant I have is sythentic & I mix it with distilled water one spray bottle amount at a time.  I used flood coolant on the horizontal mill at the local college, cleaning up wet chips was not fun. 

If I had a shop & used my machines daily I'd definitely run it. Sometimes I won't use my machines for weeks or at times even months. There are things that I would love to use flood coolant for but I just don't want to deal with it in my home garage. I use my garage for other things too.

I've never used a mister myself. I don't like to keep the garage door open when I'm working in there so no mister for me. I hear Fogbusters are much better than misters but again no experience with them either. They're also not that cheap & no one really makes cheaper knock offs that I'm aware of.

Another option are MQL systems like Acculube which don't seem to be talked about much here. The lubricant is usually not toxic & there are vegetable based ones. They are expensive though & is probable why many hobbyists don't have them.


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## NC Rick (Sep 12, 2020)

darkzero said:


> Messy sums it up. Can fly all over the place. If not used often it can go rancid & cause rust. I know they make anit-microbial products to help comabt that. Perhaps there are better products out today. I hear synthetic coolants are better for that. The coolant I have is sythentic & I mix it with distilled water one spray bottle amount at a time.  I used flood coolant on the horizontal mill at the local college, cleaning up wet chips was not fun.
> 
> If I had a shop & used my machines daily I'd definitely run it. Sometimes I won't use my machines for weeks or at times even months. There are things that I would love to use flood coolant for but I just don't want to deal with it in my home garage. I use my garage for other things too.
> 
> ...


After seeing acculube on you tube I tried some it is good for me if I water it down by 50% or more.  No smoke and only some pleasent smell.  I use it with an acid brush and it hasn't seemed to cause any corrosion, it leaves a waxy residue. In try to keep it cleaned off.  What's strange is that the emulsion has unique properties which defies my experience with physics in that it evaporates at an incredible rate. Mix a batch in a container in the morning any it will be dried up by afternoon.  Covered or close container is best.

my lathe has a full flood coolant system Which I have never turned on.  I don't know enough to use or maintain it and when I got the machine I stupidly carried the rear splash enclosure to the recycle yard because it seems so huge.  I also wonder if I could utilize the feature in a helpful way without incurring a lot of extra maintainence work for me to keep up with. I think I could control splash issues by selecting when to use it and some shop built guards.  I'm interested in others experience with this.


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## Jim F (Nov 15, 2020)

darkzero said:


> Messy sums it up. Can fly all over the place. If not used often it can go rancid & cause rust. I know they make anit-microbial products to help comabt that. Perhaps there are better products out today. I hear synthetic coolants are better for that. The coolant I have is sythentic & I mix it with distilled water one spray bottle amount at a time.  I used flood coolant on the horizontal mill at the local college, cleaning up wet chips was not fun.
> 
> If I had a shop & used my machines daily I'd definitely run it. Sometimes I won't use my machines for weeks or at times even months. There are things that I would love to use flood coolant for but I just don't want to deal with it in my home garage. I use my garage for other things too.
> 
> ...


I was wondering if soluble oil had a use in a home shop, you answered my question.
The cutting fluid I got from NAPA is soluble oil.


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## AmericanMachinist (Nov 21, 2020)

Wonder if there's an application for *dripping* something like cool mist (dripping to avoid atomization), coupled with a small pan and something like pig mat below to catch it.

I just really don't like oil smoke


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## matthewsx (Nov 21, 2020)

I'm sure you could rig something up with a soda bottle and an IV tube. I just use spray bottles from the dollar store, works fine for me.

John


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## vtcnc (Nov 21, 2020)

AmericanMachinist said:


> Wonder if there's an application for *dripping* something like cool mist (dripping to avoid atomization), coupled with a small pan and something like pig mat below to catch it.
> 
> I just really don't like oil smoke



An old fashion drip oiler rigged up to a stand and some tubing will be as close to a machinists IV as you are going to get.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Lo-Fi (Nov 22, 2020)

I found dilute soluble oil coolant applied with an acid brush to be quite sufficient. No rust issues, little mess. I've been using Dromus B, making batches up as I need it. Keeps well in an old plastic bottle: 






						Quaker Houghton Dromus B - 1 Litre
					

Quaker Houghton Dromus B is a general purpose soluble oil for light to moderate duty machining on a wide range of materials.




					www.lubefinder.com
				




It even has quite a pleasant smell to it.


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## erikmannie (Nov 24, 2020)

My lathe has a factory flood coolant system. I chose MobilMet 766 “Neat Cutting Fluid” which I set to a slow drizzle & keep away from high RPM chuck jaws.

This CF smokes sometimes; my family members in the house have noted the odor of this smoking CF. It is fairly messy, but I always use CF if at all possible so I tolerate the stained shirts & pants.

Before my flood coolant system, I usually found myself using my left hand to drizzle CF on the work, so it is nice to have both hands available again.


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