Machining coolant filtration Media
Published: 10 years ago
Recently I've been having problems with chips clogging up my smaller coolant nozzles and spitting out of the bigger ones onto my work and being re-cut by the endmill. This was leaving gnarly smears in the surface finish of one of our more detail oriented cuts, not acceptable! So I did a bunch of research on filtering coolant, saw a lot of expensive solutions, then finally happened upon a thread on the Practical Machinist forum that described how to build one for $100. And you know what? It works GREAT!
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/coolant-filters-179464
Something I didn't know while filming this, if you use a filter much less than 50 micron you run the risk of stripping your coolant, actually filtering out the good oil and making it useless. Also, I'm using the cheap foam style filters that came with it, they tend to swell up and don't last as long as the woven cotton style ones. You'll see what I mean if you start looking around for them online. I'll be picking up a few of those in 50 or 100 micron. So far this foam one has worked great for 2 months, no pressure increase yet.
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/coolant-filters-179464
Something I didn't know while filming this, if you use a filter much less than 50 micron you run the risk of stripping your coolant, actually filtering out the good oil and making it useless. Also, I'm using the cheap foam style filters that came with it, they tend to swell up and don't last as long as the woven cotton style ones. You'll see what I mean if you start looking around for them online. I'll be picking up a few of those in 50 or 100 micron. So far this foam one has worked great for 2 months, no pressure increase yet.