To coolant or not to coolant.

[MrWhoopee]

Does anyone ever simply use coolant concentrate without diluting it?

At that point you're better off using straight oil. Without the water, coolant is no better for cooling than oil and is much more expensive.

 

[Golem Pens]

Dumb question, what's the distinction between coolant and other cutting fluids? From the name I assume it keeps the material and tool temps down better, but when is what best used? (Eg: in my case, say drilling out plastic - "coolant" vs the tap magic aqueos I use, or more generic cutting oils)

 

[Fly_Cut]

Dumb question, what's the distinction between coolant and other cutting fluids? From the name I assume it keeps the material and tool temps down better, but when is what best used? (Eg: in my case, say drilling out plastic - "coolant" vs the tap magic aqueos I use, or more generic cutting oils)

Coolant is water soluble, usually 1/2 cup of oil to 5 gallon pail of water. Makes large quantities and very fluid for flushing chips away as well as cooling.
Cutting oil is thicker and usually applied manually. It sticks to the part and cutting tool.
I buy coolant by the pail, roughly 150$ to 200$ for 5 gallons.
One gallon of rapid tap is 150$.

 

[Golem Pens]

Coolant is water soluble, usually 1/2 cup of oil to 5 gallon pail of water. Makes large quantities and very fluid for flushing chips away as well as cooling.
Cutting oil is thicker and usually applied manually. It sticks to the part and cutting tool.
I buy coolant by the pail, roughly 150$ to 200$ for 5 gallons.
One gallon of rapid tap is 150$.

Thank you!

 

[Mike R]

I'm to the point of squeezing the last few cc's of cutting oil out of the gallon jug of Rapid Tap and am flabbergasted at the price for a replacement jug. (Lower island group buy ?)
My mill has a coolant setup, not installed yet and the Meuser could be set up reasonably easily for coolant as well (dangerous statement ?). The surface grinder is set up and I do use coolant on it perhaps 20% of the time.
My concern is that I'm a slob. I'll often leave an unfinished job set up at the end of the day and between jobs it is too often just a quick brush off of the mounting surfaces and go. My fear with coolant is that my sloviness will lead to unwanted issues that my machines don't deserve. I know the simple answer is to show my tools their due respect and clean them properly at the end of each day. Tried that but it's me we're talking about here, doesn't work. So how valid is my concern and are there any tricks or hacks to help alleviate my shortcomings ?

I have been an on and off and back on again coolant user. My home brew CNC conversion I used coolant with and learned to hate it enough that I switched to a "fogbuster" type setup. Sold that mill when I got the Tormach that had a full enclosure with flood coolant and I've been running it with coolant for about 2 years now - in a very infrequent manner. Its been ok. The big thing was adding the fish tank bubbler AND a timer that runs the bubbler only 5 mins 4 times a day. I haven't had issues with corrosion and I'm pretty lazy with cleaning up after, leave the vise on the table etc. If you don't have an enclosure for containment though, I don't recommend. Cleaning coolant off the floor is not the chore I enjoy, and I have to do that once in awhile when I spill it or the enclosure springs a leak.

 

[slow-poke]

Regarding the squeeze bottles. The Amazon specials that I purchased leak like a sieve when inverted. Even the “high quality no leaks” ones.

The up and over then bends down gooseneck style are the only ones that I have that you can actually use without getting an equal amount of fluid on the destination and your hands.