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Coolant setup for grinding

Cole2534

Diamond
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
Hey guys, I've only done dry grinding in the past but I have a small coolant setup I'd like to begin using with my Harig. Does anyone have any do's/dont's for wet grinding? I know that you should only apply coolant while the wheel is spinning to prevent saturation, what else do I need to know?

I use trim-sol in my saw, so I figured I'd use that. Tips on concentration?

Thanks, Cole
 
I have a Cylindrical grinder with flood coolant, which works great. On the SG I use mist coolant after have been dry grinding for years. This is a Kool Mist unit, uses very little coolant, keeps down on dust. If dressing the wheel, or heavy grinding I turn on the vacuum system, but generally have it off.
 
I would start with a 3% concentration. You want just enough coolant to get rust protection. Coolant seems to dry with a sticky residue so less is better.
 
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Good to have a switch to shut coolant before turning off wheel.. just a few seconds is enough to clear whee of coolant.
Not a bad idea to box in the go side so most coolant is caught and goes back to tank.
Small hose to the wheel can be good or just directing to the part.
 
I have a Cylindrical grinder with flood coolant, which works great. On the SG I use mist coolant after have been dry grinding for years. This is a Kool Mist unit, uses very little coolant, keeps down on dust. If dressing the wheel, or heavy grinding I turn on the vacuum system, but generally have it off.
 
Here find two device that uses air for cooling, some use compressor air and water, water and a soap mist , and some with just air. Water with coolant mist or water with soda added for avoiding rust. Good thing about water and soda is that it is bio-degradable so one can often just dump it with no treatment…But on one (actually my main job nowadays) job with not a air jet and using a wrong wheel a part got hot enough to so make a soda-mix go solid and then I lost time cleaning the parts. It turned into a crust that looked like paint..?

I don't think the air jet is as good as normal coolant but it does have its place and does cool a part. Heat still goes up in a standing part like that on a surface grinder.

Think I still have an air cool in one of my old tool boxes. Likely sell it here in the spring..
Cold Gun Aircoolant System for concentrate cooling - Eputec
Tool Cooling System | Nex Flow Air Products

OT: The Cold Gun grinding photo is an example of a grinding set-up that could use an angle plate on the go side with a parallel or brace clamped to go from the part touching above center to give it support..Vibration and possible flip and throw the part is reason for the go-side brace.

Good SG rules, if you can tip it with two fingers it is a tippy part / If you can finger flip it bumping with you fingernail and feel any vibration touching with your other hand it should have a brace. (A bump brace is often a mush better tip stop than a right angle block-in.)

OT: that B&S small mag chuck makes a great squaring magnet to set on the grinder's chuck because it has a top and bottom side rail, same can also be used on a plate for inspection a part of a right angle side.
 
I dont mean eschew the sage advice, but it's setup for flood coolant so I'm going to try that first.

Does it capture a large chunk of the dust and sparks, will it get flung everywhere? I don't see how that wouldn't be the case with a surface speed of 6600fpm.
 
Coolant does catch sparks and makes some what cleaner grinding. Putting a catch box perhaps 5" deep at your spark deflector will catch even more coolant and sparks.

Never used this but it looks good in advertising Kool Mist - Frequently Asked Questions Spray Mist Coolant Systems, Mill Coolant, Tool Coolant, Lathe Coolant, Machining Coolant by Kool Mist

My buddy don got a grinding job right our of high school at a good size cutting tool shop making precision and common spade type cutters..The owner would not allow coolant on the surface grinders. Wow! was don surprised at how much coolant helped grinding. Many and plumbing parts are made with carbide and HSS spade cutters so such cutters making is a big industry.

Actually at my first real job at Cutmore Tool we did surface grinding steel and the like grinding dry...and wet on carbide.
 
I've just added a coolant system to my Grinder (J&S 540) after about 13 yrs of dry grinding. I have a large job coming up and thought I should get around to it after all this time.

Surprisingly far less messy in use than I thought it would be!

Added a filter system on the return line - jut a household water filter type thing - and I was really surprised how much crap it caught just test running the system for 5 minutes. This Was AFTER I had vaccuumed, blown out, and cleaned down the table. Pic of what the filter found in that time below.

I also found that a 25 micron filter was too small, clogged quickly and backed up at the table drains. Changed to 50 micron and that flows just fine.

CoolantFilter.jpg
 
You may find maintaining such a filter expensive. A cheese cloth bag to be used for a time and tossed may be better.
I think a 46 grit is about .015" so it will be tough to find a filter that will last very long...
 
You may find maintaining such a filter expensive. A cheese cloth bag to be used for a time and tossed may be better.
I think a 46 grit is about .015" so it will be tough to find a filter that will last very long...

You may well be right, time will tell.
I chose this one because the filter is a simple sleeve that fits over the central core and is held on with caps at the end. Costs about $15 for a pack of 5, and takes a couple of minutes to change over.

With 50micron being 0.002", hopefully they will be OK. Ran it for an hour or so with really good flow, whereas the 25micron/0.001" filter was blocking after about 10 minutes.51G+CSilLwL._SL1000_.jpg
 
Be mindful of the coolant return. On all the grinders I've used (that harig included), debris can easily slow the return flow down enough that the gutter overflow quickly. I've had a couple too that the pump (which wasn't any kind of high-volume type) pumped more fluid than the return could handle, so it would overflow.

That said, I like to flood as much coolant I can get without making a mess. You want it right at the point the wheel is contacting the material, but it helps having it flow all over the chuck to keep dust down and rinsed into the table.

It also helps to rinse off the chuck when you're done so that you don't have rusty particles dried to the table next time you use it.
 
Be mindful of the coolant return. On all the grinders I've used (that harig included), debris can easily slow the return flow down enough that the gutter overflow quickly. I've had a couple too that the pump (which wasn't any kind of high-volume type) pumped more fluid than the return could handle, so it would overflow.

That said, I like to flood as much coolant I can get without making a mess. You want it right at the point the wheel is contacting the material, but it helps having it flow all over the chuck to keep dust down and rinsed into the table.

It also helps to rinse off the chuck when you're done so that you don't have rusty particles dried to the table next time you use it.

Qt M.B. Naegle [helps having it flow all over the chuck to keep dust down and rinsed into the table.] Plus keeping the chuck and part cool.. rust consideration coolant also to keep rust makers out of your mag chuck.
 
Sure - for the filter or the coolant?
Whole thing I guess.

Be mindful of the coolant return. On all the grinders I've used (that harig included), debris can easily slow the return flow down enough that the gutter overflow quickly. I've had a couple too that the pump (which wasn't any kind of high-volume type) pumped more fluid than the return could handle, so it would overflow.

That said, I like to flood as much coolant I can get without making a mess. You want it right at the point the wheel is contacting the material, but it helps having it flow all over the chuck to keep dust down and rinsed into the table.

It also helps to rinse off the chuck when you're done so that you don't have rusty particles dried to the table next time you use it.

I was hoping you'd chime in. :) That thing grinds great, just makes a hell of a mess dry.

How did you fix the loc-line to where you wanted it? I just remembered that I have an un-used mag-base loc-lice setup that'd be perfect for this. Boom.
 
Glad it's working out for ya!

We had a length of pipe going through the boss on the left side of the head with a T on the bottom and lock-line branching off on either side of the wheel. It's not super rigid, but it worked.

A mag base might work, but I think the wheel shroud was aluminum so you would have to stick it back by the column.
 
Hi Peter,

Added a filter system on the return line - jut a household water filter type thing.

I have a J&S 540 which has the factory coolant system, about a dozen traps and weirs to filter out grit and swarf. I have been thinking about adding one of these household water filters, but after the pump, just before the nozzle which sprays coolant onto the part and the wheel. The idea being that just before the nozzle is where there is the least stuff to catch and clog the filter.

Is yours on the return line because you have not got a weir/trap system to catch the first 99.9%?
 
Hi Peter,

Is yours on the return line because you have not got a weir/trap system to catch the first 99.9%?

Yes, mine had never had coolant on it from new, so no weirs, traps, or collectors. I bought from a presstool maker that I did a lot of business with, they had about 10 of these, and this one was sort of spare.
I bought the coolant catch trough from ebay a couple of years ago, and just got around to fitting it all this last week.

5.jpg4.jpg3.jpg2.jpg1.jpg
 
It has plenty of flow, and I don't even need a splash guard on the front of the table, as it all stays contained in there.
There's obviously a wave created as the table indexes along X, but it never gets big, even with the table on rapid with the hydraulic feed, and the wave is what pushes it to the drain (and into the return trough) on the right-hand side of the table.

Far, far, less messy than I'd envisaged. And a couple of minutes of traverse after the pump is switched off, and all the coolant has drained off the table. Quite happy with that
 








 
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