Coolant in the grinder stinks...

WOW! That's great! Really good idea, controls the bacteria, I'll try it. Thx, Julius

What kind of immersion heater? JS

Do you run the pump and circulate the hot coolant, so to kill the bacteria in the hole system? Thx, JS

I had the same problem with my cnc lathe . I went to wallmart and bought a small bag of pool shock treatment its concitrated clorine.I but just a little in my tank less than a teaspoon and it cleared up after a day no more smell. No rust or any bad efects that i can tell. its also been about 4 months since i tryed this and still no smell.

You've got bacteria growing in there. You changed the fluid and the bacteria left behind are real happy at all the fresh food you put in. I used to use an immersion heater in the tank to take it up near boiling every couple of weeks. No chemicals and it kills off all the bacteria.

Gary H. Lucas

So you mean I shouldn't piss in it? JS

pawnbrokers.

politician, president. Letter, 15 Nov. 1913.

Might wanna just go to home depot and pick yourself up a hot water tank heating element....

Rate in which you can reach desired temp will depend on the electrical supply that you have available :

Multiply your watt hours by 3.414 to obtain bthu.....remembering that one btu is the amount of heat that it takes to raise the temp of one lb of water by 1 deg F., and that 1 lb of water weighs appx 8.3 lbs.

Pasteurization is generally recognized to occur at 150 ~ 170 deg F....suggest heat the medium fairly gradually up to setpoint or at least should soak there for a some short period of time...say 10 minutes or so.

HTH

SVL:

Did you write that last part just to see if your audience was awake and paying attention?

I believe "gallon" is what is needed in there.

BottleBob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net:

That was the vicoden talking bob.

If you pump near boiling "coolant" all over your grinder, to the point of killing off the bacteria it will take the better part of a week for the machine to normalize again. Something like Killcide would be a better bet if you want to maintain tolerance on the machine. As an aside, I would not use bleach as it is very corrosive to machine parts.

Thx, Anth.

Correction :

8.3 lb of water weighs 1 gallon.....

Much better.

How's the foot? Julie tired of you, yet?

Later,

Charlie

No.

In fact, we dont use heat at all...that being something I personally wouldn't consider unless the coolant was removed from the machine for re-processing.

We simply clean out thoroughly , flush with clear water and then re-fill with fresh coolant mix.

You GOTTA get out ALL of the sludge, as microbe colonies tend to reproduce at an exponential rate.....

There's a product called "Grotan" that we do use very occasionally here.

Generally the bacteria that cause this problem are anaerobic, i.e. like to grow away from air/oxygen. I have seen shops simply put in an air line and bubble air from time to time to prevent "sour" coolant, esp over long weekends. You can rig up a light timer and solenoid valve to minimize air consumption

Also you might consider changing to a 100% synthetic coolant. The older water soluble solutions [pigeon's milk] have a large amount of organic matter [oil] with sulphur that contributes to the odor problem. Be sure to flush the system well if you do this.

If this is an older machine, your coolant sump is likely to be unnecessarily large. With a minimum size sump you will minimize your problems as more of the coolant gets circulated/oxiginated in use, and makes it more economical to simply dump the used coolant and put in fresh.

Consider adding a filter. One of the aftermarket auto-oil filters that takes a spin-on unit is cheap, easy to install, and quick to change.

Sour coolant can also be a health problem in addition to being "stinky" as it can promote abscesses and boils where it contacts the skin. One OSHA visit that does not occur offsets considerable time/effort on your part.

Tell your workers to stop spitting in the sump....

Unka George (George McDuffee)

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the "money touch," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Letter, 15 Nov. 1913.

Charlie,

Always nice yakkin with ya...

Doing VERY well after the surgery....but alas, since am also quite busy here, gonna try and post an update soon to the original thread for everyone.

No shit, Sherlocks...

===

In actuality, here we are also even quite finnickey about the cleanliness of any the work piece / materials prior to their ever going into the machines....our routinely hand cleaning / degreasing dirty raw stock w/ solvents, rags, etc..maybe even tumbling them with heavy detergent, and so on...

Hence, the "No shit" comment...