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Coolant Tank leak, any suggestions?

Ember

Aluminum
Joined
Feb 28, 2019
I've spent quite a while refurbishing the coolant system on this miller:

Bridgeport mill.jpg

It hasn't been run with coolant for about 15 - 20 years and the tank had been left full, the coolant that was in it was almost solid, the pump needed striping down and fitting with a new filter and all the pipework needed replacing.

Today I finally got everything running and filled it with DD1 cleaner, 20 minutes later the cleaner started pooling on the floor. I thought this might happen given how rotted the pump filter was:

P1290219.jpg

The question now is what can I do about it?

Welding is out of the question, the tank is part of the casting and has very limited access

The only two things I can think of is some kind of sealant, I have no idea what would withstand coolant, or to plastic weld a whole new tank assembly and drip tray that somehow fits inside?

Any idea's are most welcome
 
Clean it out with strong lye
Pour in a layer of 2K epoxy floorcoating Perhaps use a primer first
With some chopped fiberglass perhaps ??

If you can reach it do the sides first

Peter
 
Thank you both for your good suggestions :)

Peter from Holland said:
Clean it out with strong lye
Pour in a layer of 2K epoxy floorcoating Perhaps use a primer first
With some chopped fiberglass perhaps ??

This seems like a good idea to me, 2K epoxy floorcoating is designed to resist oils/coolants, have you tried it? If so, was it successful? and do you have any recommendations for primer?

Aircraft fuel tank sealant. Search for MIL-S-8802. Generically known as Pro-Seal. Good stuff.
Bill

Interesting, seems similar to this:

POR15 Motorcycle Fuel Bike Tank Repair Sealer Kit | Frost Restoration

Maybe this would work, I'll have to think about it

I'll keep you posted
 
Thank you both for your good suggestions :)



This seems like a good idea to me, 2K epoxy floorcoating is designed to resist oils/coolants, have you tried it? If so, was it successful? and do you have any recommendations for primer?



Interesting, seems similar to this:

POR15 Motorcycle Fuel Bike Tank Repair Sealer Kit | Frost Restoration

Maybe this would work, I'll have to think about it

I'll keep you posted

I've never used the POR15 one but I've used similar tank liner kits (Kreem I think) and they require a lot of rotating of the tank to coat all surfaces. You'd probably have luck sealing the floor of the tank but unless you have a way of rotating the column you might have a hard time sealing the sides.
 
After further inspection there's what looks like plug welds in the base of the tank, at the four corners (about 1/2" diameter) I think the holes were part of the casting process and were welded up, the leak is likely to be tracking through one of these, only I cant see well enough to tell which. I might try putting thick epoxy sealant over all of them and see if it still leaks

I've never used the POR15 one but I've used similar tank liner kits (Kreem I think) and they require a lot of rotating of the tank to coat all surfaces. You'd probably have luck sealing the floor of the tank but unless you have a way of rotating the column you might have a hard time sealing the sides.
The fill depth is quite shallow and the leak is likely in the base anyway, I guess I figured all I'd have to do would be paint it up the sides a bit, access is tricky but possible.

machinistrrt said:
Consider eliminating the flood coolant setup. Just brush on what cutting lube you need, or switch to mist coolant.

Good luck
That's how the machines been used for the last 15-20 years, I'm relatively new to the company and I guess the engineers who are use to it just put up with it, but it gets used heavily and brush on/spray coolant really isn't good enough, it costs to much in cutters. I haven't tried mist coolant though

swatkins said:
A/C pans have these leak and rust problems all the time... I would try these two products before I spent a lot of time trying to make or rebuild that pan...
YouTube
YouTube
Thanks for that :)
 
The fill depth is quite shallow and the leak is likely in the base anyway, I guess I figured all I'd have to do would be paint it up the sides a bit, access is tricky but possible.

Fair enough. The stuff I used was fairly thick but ran off of surfaces quickly. The instructions were something like rotate to coat all surfaces, let sit for 10 min, repeat. I think the idea was to get a coating, let it skin, and then build it up from there.

If you're only leaking on the bottom though I bet it'd work well.
 
Update:

I got the tank so clean it must be one of the cleanest coolant tanks in the world, while doing that I found the leaks. I'd poured in some IMS and there were some thin streams of tiny bubbles coming up from the surface, the two most obvious ones were from the middle on the seam where the casting is joined together and from an uneven area of surface in a corner (that I can only see with a mirror)

I can't be sure I can spot all the leaks so I decided to go with covering the whole inside of the tank in some kind of two part epoxy sealant. I managed to find some that we already had on site, from our civil engineer, I'm not sure of it's maker but it's a clear two part resin base for floor paint, he contacted the manufacturer who confirmed that it will withstand all common kinds of cutting fluid.

I've just poured it in and painted it up the sides above the fill level and am waiting for it to set, I can't see the tank leaking now...

... Fingers crossed :)
 
Update 2:

Last week I took the vice off and oiled underneath it (that's something I've never had to do on that machine before), waterproofed the electrical panel and filled it with multicut. It's been filled over the weekend, everything works fine and most importantly the floor is still dry ;)

Here's a photo of it looking a bit less sorry for it's self (I found the original drip tray, cleaned everything up, completed the pipework and spent several hours milling):

Bridgeport 3.jpg


Thank you to everyone who helped on this thread :D


The only thing left for me to do now is make a new mount for the coolant tap, that plastic dovetail thing is terrible

ow, and the other four machines in my shop that are still without coolant... :ack2:
 








 
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