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Water For Coolant

At no time since I have started using water soluble coolant have I used tap water. I am on a private well here and have modest to high dissolved solids. I was buying 20-50 gallons at a time from the local grocery stores of whatever their store brand was when I first started. I didn't really want to be dependent on a water service to fill a tank, and I'm not sure they provide distilled as a service anyway. I think for those services its all RO filtered for drinking water.

I looked at DI, but then I either have to recharge the DI system periodically or I have to hire a service to handle it. I don't like being dependent, and I wasn't 100% sure DI would do the trick.

I bought a small distiller. Really intended for residential cooking and drinking. It produces about 11 gallons per day and has a 4.5 gallon reservoir. It has worked for several years, but the setup and production marginal. I can go through 10+ gallons a day if all the machines are running and the reservoir is about the right size to mix up one bucket at a time. If I remembered to fill and premix buckets even on days I am not running all the machines all day I had "enough" coolant on hand. I've been using it for several years.

Last week it died, and I have been shut down. Well I have been shutdown dealing with some family issues, but the distiller probably kept me from running some short jobs. Ok. I really didn't want to work anyway. I spent this morning cleaning it out, and replaced the fuse and it seems to be working ok again. I need to clean out the evaporator tank more often I think.

Some time back I contacted Master Chemical and asked what level of water treatment I should have and they were pretty noncommittal so I just stuck with distilled.

I have to ask. For those of you using water soluble coolant in a small shop are you using for your water source?

P.S. I just ordered a new distiller with a 25 gallon reservoir. The one I have will go on the shelf as a backup when the new one arrives.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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Makes sense, but it matters what those dissolved solids are. Carbonates aren't so bad, sulfates a little worse. Chlorides are probably much worse, but what are you trying to protect?

Did you consider reverse osmosis?

Is that purely evaporation, or is there some carry-over loss?

Hope that situation improves. It's way more important than the water!

Sounds a bit like they don't think it matters much.....

I'm talking out of turn here. I'm no machinist and haven't used water soluble coolants since high school shop class.

It'd help to know what's in your water supply, how the water escapes your coolant cycle and whether you care about water cost.

Resistance heated stills tend to be pretty expensive to run unless electric power is close to free. Vapor compression or heat pump stills would be better but still not good. A decent RO system will give about

10 PPM by itself, DI polishing seems unlikely to be useful in your case. RO's by far the most cost-efficient, _provided_ your feed water doesn't need a lot of pre-treatment, which depends on what's in it.

It'll be hard to give a useful answer without knowing a bit more about the constraints you're working under. HTH,

bob prohaska

Reply to
bob prohaska

I always have mixed feelings when somebody says something like that. I appreciate the sentiment, but it doesn't address the reality that the rest of the world doesn't give a damn about your problems. The bills still have to be paid and the chores still have to get done. Letting yourself "fall apart" or not worrying about keeping the electricity on, the bills paid, the family fed, tires on the vehicles or any of the other day to day stuff because you have a "reason" is irresponsible and juvenile. You can cry and change a tire at the same time. You can worry and sweep the floor in the shop at the same time. When I have weeks like this one were I accomplished very little in the shop I also feel a little ashamed of myself. My customers are counting on me to get their parts finished so they can take care of their families. Their families are no less important to them than mine is to me.

Often the BEST way to help our family and minimize the fallout is to keep doing the things that need to be done everyday.

I've had some pretty shitty times in my life (and a lot of good ones) and I got through them with this thought in mind. Step in and keep swinging. It works whether you are backed into a corner by thugs, digging a ditch, or paying bills. You may still get dragged down, but you will leave it a little better for the person who has to come after you.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Small shop, 30 gallons in Mill, about 35 in Lathe, 2 gallons in horizontal saw.

I use tap water, the city sources its water from the river. I never had any problems I could blame on the coolant or the water.

I never run any job long enough to test tool life, I can run SS, aluminum and carbon steel all in the same day.

Randy Remove 333 to reply. Randy

Reply to
Randy333

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