Part cleaning

New to the machining world. Curious to what everyone that is running oil based coolant in swiss machines are using to cut oil and clean small parts to a finish state ready, for shipment. Aluminum, stainless, brass mostly. Any input is much appreciated.

I don't use swiss machines but I clean most everything with a Crest ultrasonic cleaner. It works extremely well and extremely fast removing oil/coolant and will also tackle old oily grime from used stuff. I deal with a lot of nasty auto parts and to me the thing works miracles. It will take stuff from oily to ready to ship. I usually just air blast stuff when it comes out of the cleaner but you could also rinse with DI water to remove the cleaning solution. Some use two separate ultrasonic tanks for wash/rinse cycles.

Lots of threads about ultrasonic cleaning here if you search, but a couple main points are:
-Higher end brands do clean better than the cheap harbor freight stuff. Heated tanks help. I like my Crest unit but there are others. Check ebay and used medical/dental supply for deals. No need to get one specifically sold as a "parts washer"

-You will need to select cleaning solutions and workholding methods to prevent certain materials from getting tarnished. Manufacturers like Brulin make cleaning solution designed to clean aluminium without tarnishing the surface. Metal to metal contact can also cause this, so figuring out ways to hang your parts or rack them on plastic can help. Some people say to use strong solvents in an ultrasonic but in my experience this is not necessary for anything I have run across. The heat generated by the ultrasonic can be dangerous when using flammable solvents. Besides, it is a major plus to me that I no longer have to deal with toxic, flammable, stinky solvent since the ultrasonic does way better with just nontoxic solution.

-There are ways to damage the machine (running dry, letting stuff contact the sides/bottom) so you need to make sure people running it know this so you don't have to replace the tank due to broken transducers.

There was a thread a while back.. Guy was running soluble as a straight cutting oil in his swiss machines..

If I remember correctly some of the parts had to go in a regular lathe or mill for further ops, and it was
easier to NOT have to clean the parts, just let it rinse off into the coolant..

Even if you aren't putting the parts into another machine, soluble oil/coolant comes off with a rinse in normal
old everyday water..... And then you have COOLANT to go in your standard machines.

Just thinking out loud, but if I bought a Swiss, that is probably what I would do, though depending on how
much I needed, I may cut it with straight Chevron Soluble to keep costs down...

As an aside, I use my Coolant Oil(Blaser BC940 currently) as a tapping oil.. Makes cleaning the parts SOOOOOOO MUCH EASIER, you
just rinse 'em in water.. DONE.. and it has all the high pressure goodies and additives that you want
in a cutting oil... The only difference is that it rinses off in water. No crazy soaps or cleaning machines to
deal with, depending on the customer and further processing, sometimes they just go straight in the box, sometimes
they get a dip in some soapy water (Dawn)..

Bobw said:

As an aside, I use my Coolant Oil(Blaser BC940 currently) as a tapping oil.. Makes cleaning the parts SOOOOOOO MUCH EASIER, you
just rinse 'em in water.. DONE.. and it has all the high pressure goodies and additives that you want
in a cutting oil... The only difference is that it rinses off in water. No crazy soaps or cleaning machines to
deal with, depending on the customer and further processing, sometimes they just go straight in the box, sometimes
they get a dip in some soapy water (Dawn)..

Click to expand...

Oemeta has a tapping oil that is essentially what you describe. When we have to use it (very rare), I drill and tap as soon as I can in the program instead of tapping last so regular use of coolant for other operations just wash the tapped holes out. Works great. [/HIJACK]

TurnD,

I run Motorex Ortho NFX-10 in my Haas SuperMiniMill. I don't do any high-volume production like you probably will, but I can say that if I let parts just stand in a tray (on a screen), that within half a day there is no "standing" oil on them, just a light film. At that point, about 15 seconds in a heated, high-powered ultrasonic tank with my home-brew mix and they are squeaky clean. You may need to experiment a touch to find the right mix of soap(s) in your ultrasonic for the particular oil you're using.

PM

I was in one shop that runs oil, and they have a parts washer (originally a rental
from a large service company) that re-distills the solvent.

I don't recall if they re-use the oil that comes out from the distillation
process.