old coolant pumps

In this day and age, it is very cool.

Wes

But perhaps cooler: For $5-10, you coulda gotten a whole new one from HF. :) Not li'l giant, of course.

But I do agree, replaceable parts/repairable products are cool, and indicated that the company respects the products it makes, as well as the consumer who buys them. Yeah, but their prices.... :(

Personally, I'd rather rehab an old one than deal with HF junk Don't get me wrong, I do shop there, but I am very selective.

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:DCAQh.60$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

Which brings up something I've been wrestling with, regarding old coolant pumps.

I've got an old (1992) pump on my mill that I cannot for the life of me get to pump the oil I changed over to.

It'll pump about 2 feet up the line, and hang there.

I replaced it (as an experiment) with a small Wesco unit from a 5 gallon bucket system.

The old pump is a 1/10 HP unit, with a (approximately) 2" impeller. The Wesco is a 1/20 HP unit, with a (approximately) 4" impeller.

The Wesco pumps MUCH better, but starts failing after about a half hour or so of pumping. Seems like the motor is getting a bit hot, and for whatever reason it appears like it starts cavatating in the oil resevoir.

I've thought about grafting the Wesco's larger impeller system to the older pump's motor, but would like to know just *WHY* this is happening, and the why's and wherefore's of coolant pumps.

If you're curious, it's on a Bridgeport V2XT that I've converted to oil for coolant.

Input?

Thanks,

Weyland

Gunner

Fred Thompson and Condi Rice in '08!!!

Ive had similar problems with different kinds of machines running different types of coolant... tried different kinds of pumps as a solution; fish tank pumps, oil pumps etc... the best i could come up with is bilge pumps out of boats. Come in all sizes and flow rates to suit any needs right up to mega industrial, several can be ganged for that 5 story high drill press youve been thinking of buying etc... the only pain is you need 12V DC to run them. I bought a small car charger to hook up, the bilge pumps are so cheap/reliable/easy to replace that i find the total cost is still very reasonable....

Shaun

Y'know, raising the reservoir would solve that.... It has to go somewhere, anyway, so why not put it on a stand?

Just thinkin'...

So long as you've got a good chip sock on the intake, a small roller pump would solve all your problems.

LLoyd

Sounds like small hp, higher viscosity could be the problem. the little giants pump like an sob. Raising the bucket would certainly help, as per lloyd, and also mebbe inc'g the diam of the lines/nozzles, etc. There could also be sludge in the lines, esp. if you have goose-neck type tubing.

I also have a Little Giant coolant pump (the 1 gallon one), and the chip screen rotted out after a few years. They do have replacements, but nothing better than what rotted out so quickly. The problem is that the mesh is made of aluminum. The mesh is held in a galvanized steel crimp ring. The coolant is Cool-Mist 77.

So I made a replacement from some new and shiney bronze screening I had salvaged from a window that didn't survive remodeling. The hard part was making the ring to which the screening hemisphere is attached. For this, I made a ring out of #6 solid copper wire, joining the ends by silver-brazing the scarfed tips. Then, I sewed the mesh to the ring using #28 copper wire to hold it in place, and soldered the mesh to the wire ring using plumbers solder. Soldering required an industrial hotplate, as a torch heats the mesh to incandescence long before the ring is even warm.

We'll see how long this one lasts, but bronze has to last longer than aluminum.

Joe Gwinn

That sounds like a great replacement screen. I woulda considered soldering with a Weller or similar 100/200W soldering gun, but there's nothin wrong with the way you did it.

WB metalworking projects

I have lusted after the big Weller temp-controlled irons, but never had sufficient reason to buy one. They would have been ideal, I think.

One note about the hotplate method: Be careful when you pick the work up off the hotplate surface, as some of the hot solder will drip off. Make sure it doesn't end up in your shoe. I dodged this bullet, but there was an element of luck involved.

Joe Gwinn

[snip]

Hi Gunner,

Mobilmet Gamma - Viscosity Index, ASTM D 2270 - 121

I fixed it today.

I took the centrifugal aprt of the pump from the Wesco, and grafted it onto the more powerful Rumaco pump motor.

I had to extend the Rumaco's shaft by 2.500", but all I did was make an extension for the shaft and used the Rumaco's shaft threads to secure it, adding a set screw once I realized it spun in a left hand direction that unscrewed the extention...

... of course by "realized", I mean after I had the whole thing put together, in the tank, spinning, and it actually unscrewed and blew up the pump housing...

But~! It pumps like the dickens, now~! LOL.

Best,

Weyland

Because the table drains down into a resevoir on the floor, and raising it to a point it would have worked would have put it above the table, leaving it nowhere to drain to...

Nice thought though. Thanks~! Got it fixed anyhow.

Best,

Weyland

Good lad!

A lot of pumps are simply incapable of pumping oils and thicker coolants. They may work well with toilet water...but when you stick oil in them..they simply poop out. Each of my machine tools, including the Hardinges all have coolant pumps capable of oil. And the HLV-H will pump the high sulphur oil I keep in it..but it wont pump it as hard as it wil the toilet later I used to run. I had to put a bigger pump on my Emerson 8x12 horizontal bandsaw for this reason. The tank is under it...8 gallons of cutting oil..real oil..and the original pump wouldnt bring up more than just a trickle, though it would shoot out waterbased in a big stream.

Gunner

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide"

- James Burnham