Am I correctly scared of water based flood coolants?

[LVLAaron]

I'm interested in putting a barrel flush system together... as well as having some flood coolant on my mill.

I know some guys making top notch barrels using SYN4300 (http://www.drlubricants.com/products.html#syn4300) with the factory PM1440GT flood coolant pump through a filter into the muzzle end of the barrel.

I'm just not sold using water based products on my machines. I'd hate to find corrosion under a vice or lathe carriage. Maybe I'm just afraid of the unknown.

I'm not opposed to a traditional high pressure system... but if I can avoid buying a 1200 dollar pump, and use the same coolant on my mill... win win...


Talk me into or out of flood coolant.

 

[benmychree]

The only problems that I have had with flood coolants is degradation under conditions where air is prevented from reaching the coolant in the sump by a film of oil, this is worsened by infrequent use of the coolant system, where it would be aerated, the result is rust/corrosion. Back in the good old days, coolants used nitrosamines to preserve coolant from degradation.

 

[MyLilMule]

Water rusts metal. No thanks.

 

[Karl_T]

For gundrilling, i bought a high pressure washer pump off ebay - 4gpm at 4000 psi. Used a treadmill motor to run it. Synthetic coolant like you mentioned.

I LOVE flood coolant on my CNC mill. just a low pressure coolant pump here. My mill is not enclosed, just a catch pan under the machine so I run the coolant pretty slow to not slop out of the machine. keep a splash guard around the cutter.

I use mist coolant on the manual mills, plenty good here as i don't push the cutters near as hard.

I also prefer the synthetic. Never goes rancid or rusts anything. After filling the tank, normally just add water to keep it at 8%. get a tester so you know where you are at. the water evaporates, the coolant does not.

 

[LVLAaron]

For gundrilling, i bought a high pressure washer pump off ebay - 4gpm at 4000 psi. Used a treadmill motor to run it. Synthetic coolant like you mentioned.

I LOVE flood coolant on my CNC mill. just a low pressure coolant pump here. My mill is not enclosed, just a catch pan under the machine so I run the coolant pretty slow to not slop out of the machine. keep a splash guard around the cutter.

I use mist coolant on the manual mills, plenty good here as i don't push the cutters near as hard.

I also prefer the synthetic. Never goes rancid or rusts anything. After filling the tank, normally just add water to keep it at 8%. get a tester so you know where you are at. the water evaporates, the coolant does not.

I'm an open mill as well and the mister sounds good. I think I'll get the SYN4300 and test it on the mill.

 

[Firebrick43]

As long as your using it some what consistently, and keep the concentrations in check, water based coolant doesn't rust. Let it set it will do nasty things, including grow nasty algea/fungus. Keep the biocides in check.

Nothing like pulling a way cover back from a large machine and seeing a quivering grayish white mass 6 inches thick 15x20' in sizes.

If your using it infrequently, which I imagine the case for most on this forum, stick with oils.

 

[ericc]

We pretty much used all synthetic water based coolant at TechShop. No rust problems, but if it got under the vise they warned that there may be some staining. It was a good idea to keep the pools to a minimum and clean up after oneself. At the current maker space (Maker Nexus), I called someone out for using straight water without cleaning up afterwards. He was not happy with me. Water is not bad with aluminum, and it certainly is cheap, but so is synthetic coolant, and it only takes a little bit added to the water to really cut down the chance of rust. I use a homemade version at home, but only with the drill press when drilling a lot of heavy stuff, since there is no chance of getting it into the t-slots or slides.

 

[LVLAaron]

I use the machines almost daily. Do things like aquarium bubblers do an adequate job of preventing growth?

Also, how important is it to keep the flood coolant oil free?

 

[Firebrick43]

I use the machines almost daily. Do things like aquarium bubblers do an adequate job of preventing growth?

Also, how important is it to keep the flood coolant oil free?

You need to keep the biocides which is in many solutions, up. A don't see why a bubbler wouldn't help, but it wont stop it.

Most of the time the oil sets on top in the tank. Not a huge problem. In industry they use skimmers but in a small tank I would use an absorbent pig mat. Some are hydrophobic and will absorb oil but not water.

Pig mat

 

[LVLAaron]

You need to keep the biocides which is in many solutions, up. A don't see why a bubbler wouldn't help, but it wont stop it.

Most of the time the oil sets on top in the tank. Not a huge problem. In industry they use skimmers but in a small tank I would use an absorbent pig mat. Some are hydrophobic and will absorb oil but not water.

Pig mat

That makes sense. I've wanted to get some pig mat. I'll have to pull my pump out from inside the lathe and see if it'd be possible to get some mat in there.