Speedio coolant tank best practices

So the perforated mesh panel above the coolant tank is getting to be quite a mess. Chips get wedged on-end in the perforations and it makes cleaning the chips out pretty unpleasant.

Any tips for how to get the impacted chips out of there?

After I get it straightened out, thoughts on putting down a polypropylene filter fabric liner? Hopefully it would make it a little easier to tidy up.

I'm also wondering if it's worth building a cover to go over the open top of the filter tray, just to keep some of the coolant odor down in the shop. Anyone tried that?

McMaster 51625K35 is the thin filter fabric of choice for a few of us. Just lay it over the mesh and it makes cleanup easier and helps keep the tank clean.

I have also seen folks use it with a sort of fabricated basket affiar - either one big basket or a pair with one under each chute. Nice thing is you can lift it out and dump the chips, but you are sorta dramatically lowering the chip capacity.

Honestly, a cover over the chip bin sounds like way more of a pain in the ass than it is worth. I'm guessing that most of the coolant smell is leaking out of the cabinet (even with the roof). MistAways in the 400 size are inexpensive ($1200, shipped) and will do more... but it is a CNC mill, if you didn't like the smell of coolant, why did you get one?

As for odor, use a different coolant. I'm using Hocut, zero odor issues.
Depending on the chip problem, there's a few different things you can try. If you have a lot of fines, find an upholstery shop, and use their scrap dacron filler as a prefilter in the tray. Free to replace if you are lucky, and works well.
Good luck!

Thanks for the advice on the filter fabric! I'll give that a try.

gkoenig said:

Honestly, a cover over the chip bin sounds like way more of a pain in the ass than it is worth. I'm guessing that most of the coolant smell is leaking out of the cabinet (even with the roof). MistAways in the 400 size are inexpensive ($1200, shipped) and will do more... but it is a CNC mill, if you didn't like the smell of coolant, why did you get one?

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I have an Amano mist collector already. It does a pretty good job, except for multi-hour surfacing toolpaths. That can get the odor level strong enough to give me a little bit of a headache. I figured the splashing off the chutes into the chip tray had to be contributing... maybe not, though.

The real problem with 690XT is that it doesn't have that awesome hot-oil old school machine shop smell.

I have a sheet of McMaster-Carr 9255T22 on the floor of my pan -- a zillion .033" holes. I did this because the as-built pan floor allowed too many smalls and fines through. Do chips wedge into the 032" holes? Sure, but 6 months in, I don't have any drainage issues so I don't really care if the holes get chips stuck in them. I guess if it ends up being a problem down the road I can just lift the small-holes sheet out and tease out the chips.

I tried landscape fabric and the like -- what a PITA when I tried to scoop chips out of the pan. My scoop just caught on and ripped the fabric.

YMMV.

Regards.

Mike

My speedio is not quite making chips yet but on my little Brother (speedio is Big Brother) I am using landscape filter fabric. The cheap stuff lowes sells. I had intended to use this as a stopgap until I could find something better but it has worked great for me. Very little gets through it. My shovel is pretty well deburred I guess because i use it all the time to remove the chips off the fabric. I use strips of metal and binder clips to hold it in place on the edges.

trochoidalpath said:

The real problem with 690XT is that it doesn't have that awesome hot-oil old school machine shop smell.

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You can run straight oil instead of coolant if you want!

I've seen a set of Robodrills set up to do that. They were having problems tapping 4-40 holes that had been pre-cast (MIM) in 17-4 stainless. Swapping out coolant for straight cutting oil went a long way to solving it. I'm so glad I'm not the one who needs to take care of those machines though!

trochoidalpath said:

thoughts on putting down a polypropylene filter fabric liner? Hopefully it would make it a little easier to tidy up.

I'm also wondering if it's worth building a cover to go over the open top of the filter tray, just to keep some of the coolant odor down in the shop. Anyone tried that?

Click to expand...

I have a couple wood frames that fit the rectangle size at the bottom of the tray. I cover these with white t-shirt material and staple them to the frame. I swap in a new one every few days. I use a plastic scoop (Mcmaster 4421T3) and don't have issues with tearing the fabric. I used the filter fabric, but the flow slowed down and it didn't last long. I was probably using too fine a filter (5 micron), but my current fabric of choice is cheap and works, so I'm not changing. I do have plans to improve by making the frame from 1/2 conduit with some bends. I'm hoping to clip the fabric on and ditch the staples.

I have a cover for my chip pan. It does help keep the smell down some. I used greenhouse window clear plastic (home depot next to the corrugated metal roof panels) and bolted a handle to it. However, what really helps is ventilation. I have two ducts entering the top of my machine. One is outside air. The other is venting out with a couple dust booster fans pulling air out. When the machine is running a fair amount, I leave the fans on all the time and the I can't smell coolant if I step out of the shop fir a few then back in. I also have the top of my machine somewhat sealed with panels of coroplast artfully cut and affixed with zipties. Mist just pours out the top if you don't have the top cover that comes with TSC machines.

I use Blazer BC940. It works well but I battle foaming a fair amount. My eyes get irritated from my head being in the machine. If I have to run lots of 1 minute programs, I'll throw on some goggles (Mcmaster 10435T16).

All these complaints of coolant smell?? I use Trim E206, it has a smell but I sort-of like it. To me it just smells like work. I'm trying to convince my wife, who doesn't like the smell, that's what money smells like.

I lined mine with stainless mesh from mcmastercarr 85385T96. Works very good.