On Fri, 8 Aug 2003 22:38:35 -0400, "William G Darby"
wrote:

I just bought ten gallons of ISO 10 hydraulic fluid to try as flood coolant.
I am just now draining out the rancid water soluble and drying out the sump
before I fill it with the ISO 10. There are two drains to my sump and I am
going to block both so that the way oil cannot get to the sump and mix with
the ISO 10. It (the way oil off of the X,Y and Z slides) will collect in
the trough around the base and I will have to keep it cleaned out. I have an
enclosed table and it is possible for me to drain the ISO 10 directly to
the sump via a holding strainer to allow the rough filtering out of cuttings
before they find their way to the sump.

I know that one of the guys already uses hydraulic fluid as a coolant so I
am sure it will work but I would invite any comment on what I'm doing, that
may pre warn me of potential problems or any pro or con comments.

**************

In cleaning my sump I did make one very cheerful discovery (That is, if you
can find anything cheerful about cleaning a sump!!) Well anyway usually if I
have any liquids to vacuum I use my wet/dry shop vac but there is always the
inevitable messy cleanup of the vac. So this time I decided to attach the
vac to the poring spout of an empty 5 gal way oil can and a short length of
garden hose into the air vent hole on the 5 gal can. It worled like a charm!

The garden hose slipped easily into the sump's air vent holes and I was able
to get into every crack and cranny. The mess was confined to the 5 gal can
and it was easily emptied when near to full. All round, a hell of a lot
better experience then having the liquid go into the vac.

Bill D



In the dark recesses of my mind I recall that one of the group's more
experience contributors, Fitch Williams, recommended a 50/50 mix of
hydraulic oil and paint thinner as a milling flood liquid. I never
tried it myself but Fitch never gave us a bum steer so I wouldn't
hesitate to try it if I need it.

I looked it up with google and here's what Fitch had to say:

"On the Mill the fluid needs to be more viscous and to move with
higher velocity to move the chips out of the way. Straight oil is too
thick for my coolant pump so I use a mixture of the cheapest hydraulic
oil I could find ($19.95 for 5 gallons) and mineral spirits (paint
thinner). The mixture starts out a bit more than 50% oil and over the
course of a year, some of the thinner evaporates out and it gets
thicker. When it gets to thick to blow the chips out of the way, I
add more thinner. Not to scientific, but it works just fine and the
mill never grows black algae, the stuff never develops growths in the
tank, doesn't start to smell like something died in the tank, and
nothing rusts."

HTH Rick Renner