Kool mist vapors?

You were breathing misting coolant vapor, not clear water, right?

I just saw an article on the subject, but can't find it now. The gist was that there seemed to be more asthma-like symptoms and complaints where it was used. The problems were thought to be tramp oil and mist out of ph specification rather than uncontaminated fresh mist.

That's the down side of mist coolers. Lots of liquid dust.

It's about 5% Kool mist, butyl acetate, listed and being non-hazardous. I think i will wear a mask next week.

The one time I used it I got sick. The oil in it seemed to coat my lungs and make trouble. I'll never use misted coolants again.

Dan

This happened to me as well. Once. I got a half-mask respirator, and a better sprayer. Now I get more coolant on target and less in the air, and the respirator handles what does get in the air.

Joe Gwinn

I won't breathe that stuff anymore, it makes me sick. I wonder if I could fill the thing with Vodka?

You could fill it with peanut oil, like they do at Volkswagen, but I don't know how they treat it. But don't take this seriously. They must have a sophisticated atomizer of some kind, and the Kook-Mist rig probably won't handle the viscosity. It sure works great for VW, however.

There were several epidemiological studies, mostly done in Europe, that showed all kinds of problems resulting from mist coolant. However, I doubt if they tried the Kool-Mist formulas, which are supposed to be benign.

Benign, schemign, I'm not breathing no steenking atomized chemicals. I have no idea how they're getting away with it, because the active chemical (butyl acetate?) is identified as a hazard to eyes and lungs when you look at the chemical itself.

It could be that there is no evidence that such a dilute solution is a hazard. Still, it's not for me.

-- Ed Huntress

When used as directed by the manufacturer, its a safe product. However, using one without properly cleaning and disinfecting it on a regular basis could contribute to additional breathing problems for people who have asthma, severe allergies and other respiratory difficulties.

AsianDoll

Since its my school semester break I have been using my free time playing games like

That was not intentional. I meant Kool-Mist.

-- Ed Huntress

Boelube works that way, although you must use a Boelube device. Works great, and is especially good on difficult to machine materials.

I can't imagine any vapor being good for one's lungs---aside from water. Too much of that can be a bad thing, too.

Harold

I don't know that one, but I haven't followed it for 5 years or so. VW's machining economics are somewhat different than ours -- coolant disposal in Europe costs several times more than it does here, for example -- and they're subject to stricter health standards. But they said they were getting good tool life and that the economics strongly favored the peanut-oil mist.

They use an *extremely* lean spray: around 125 ml (roughly 1/2 cup) of oil per machine, per shift.

Same here.

-- Ed Huntress

It's not new. I purchased the setup way back---about 1990. It's not cheap! $90/gallon, and it is used straight from the container. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it was made from peanut oil. Needless to say, that's not mentioned.

I don't recall the consumption now, but it was low as well. I purchased the stuff when I was building a gasketed filter press for my refining service. Bought a sheet of unknown stainless, from which I made the retaining washers for the filter media. I had to trepan the discs from the sheet material, which was about .150" thick. I used a boring head with a hand ground tool, but had no luck, breaking the tool several times. I realized I was having a lubrication problem using sulfur based oil, so I investigated and found Boelube. Solved the riddle perfectly.

I used a vacuum cleaner (discharged out of doors, with no filter to clog) to pick up the vapors. I don't like breathing any of that stuff.

Ever run a centerless grinder?

You have no clue about mist until you've been around one.

Harold

I'd be concerned about being in the vicinity of any airborne liquid droplets, and I'm a bit surprised that this has been a standard method for machining. The concept just seems like it would be an obvious health hazard when things like plumbing and electronics manufcturing are going to lead-free processes, mainly out of rampant paranoia, IMO.

I haven't used a coolant or a cutting lubricant system on any of my hobby metalworking machines, but a mist system would probably have to be my last consideration. Misting seems like a great idea for a greenhouse though, if people aren't occupying the same space.

Since misting has been discussed here several times recently, I've been wondering if an evacuation system could be utilized to minimize risk to the folks that use mist, kind of like the removal of dust in a woodworking shop is commonly done.

One probably wouldn't want to listen to a shop-vac whine while they're concentrating on work and safety, or get involved in a expensive collection system, but an almost silent squirrel cage blower intake may be sufficient to pull the stray mist into a containment system/vessel. The relatively high velocity air flow of a shop-vac probably wouldn't be required anyway.

The mist will very likely condense or accumulate upon contact with a cool surface, so trying to lift it upward could result in a messy drooling pickup inlet.

Evacuation of mist to the outdoors would also be evacuating heated shop air, so it becomes an issue of throwing away energy costs while heating a shop for personal comfort.

I suppose some sort of indoor containment system could be safely utilized with lower energy cost waste. I almost hate the over-use of the term HEPA, kinda like the abuse of the term mil-spec, but I wouldn't think that a sophisticated refrigeration unit with specialized high dollar filters would be required for capture or containment of mist for a home shop machine (or 2 or 3).

Something more along the lines of passing the airflow thru a couple of layers of screens at a low angle may be capable of capturing most of the mist which could drop into a bucket maybe. At most, I speculate that a small system might include a power supply and some Peltier coolers on a plate to get the mist to drop out of the air stream.

When examining a water/oil separator for a compressed air system, the swirl created by fins causes moisture to contact the sides of the container where it naturally drops to the bottom of the bowl/cannister, then sits there until it's drained by means of opening a petcock.

The water/oil separators work very well and are especially effective for their intended/normal applications. I don't think it would take a supergenius like the doofus that promotes the Dyson? vacuum cleaner to invent a really cool-looking vortex or cyclone separator for a little mist.

I have a system set up using a 6 inch muffin fan from a computer and some motorhome sewer tubing that gets a large percentage of the smoke when i am using soluable oil with water, but the mist is way too much volume for it to get. I am going to have to do something, the windows only open to 1x2 feet, and a fan doesn't fit well. I guess I would be better off wearing more clothing , the woodstove blazing, and all windows open, but its been around 25 degrees in the morning around here. No palms in this part of California.

The squirrel cage/centrifugal blowers are much more effective when trying to direct air flow thru/along lengths of ducting or tubing. The forced air furnace type blower (but a smaller version), will push or pull air very effectively, as demonstrated when used with duct work associated with forced air heating or cooling systems.

Fans work well enough when they need to move air from one side of a panel to the other, but perform poorly when used with ducts. I believe any duct with wavy or irregular walls would be especially bad when utilizing an ordinary fan for air flow. There are specially designed industrial axial fans that do a good job of moving air thru ducts, but the typical computer/appliance fans deliver poor performance.

The weather might not be so great now, but soon your environment will improve drastically. I've been as far north as San Francisco in September, and it seemed to get really cold at night, but that was mainly because I spent the previous couple of months in the LA area. Here in western PA we're having some nasty, old fashioned winter weather. The low temps were in the -7 to -5 F range for about a week straight and I don't think the highs were even as much as 25 F.

I've never run one, but I've sure been around them.

-- Ed Huntress