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.

--
WB
..........
metalworking projects
www.kwagmire.com/metal_proj.html


"Stupendous Man" wrote in message
...
I have been doing quite a bit of lathe work using a kool-mist this week and
due to cold weather have the shop closed up. I came down with a flu or
something on day 2.
They spec sheet says it totally safe, but does anyone know something
different?
Maybe just the fact that I have been breathing a lot of water vapor could
make it easier to get sick?
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty