Flood Coolant Pump Specs

My lathe has a built in tray and sump, it was designed for cooling from the factory. I do need to install a back splash to prevent chips going everywhere behind it though. You are correct that there's no comparison between brushing on fluid and coolant. I machine hardened 4140 on my lathe with carbide tooling, and the cutting fluid helps with surface finish, but the work gets very hot. I machined similar steels in the shop at my own work, and just having a slight stream on the workpiece helped massively.

I guess the only place I really need high flow would be on my converted CNC for clearing chips out of aluminum pockets. It has a semi-full enclosure where spray wouldn't be a problem.

I'll give this guy a try on the surface grinder. If it doesn't have enough flow I can always use it on the lathe and get something different.

https://www.harborfreight.com/14-hp-submersible-sump-pump-3000-gph-63892.html
 
A cold air gun works much better on a surface grinder. And doesn't make a mess
 
kd4gij said:
A cold air gun works much better on a surface grinder. And doesn't make a mess
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Not doubting you, but wouldn't the air tend to spread the dust. I have a chilly bits cold air system on my mill, and while it helps, I'm not really all that impressed with it. Seems to work better in conjunction with some cutting oil. It does help with chip evacuation. Planing on going to a Fogbuster type setup on the mill and see if that is any better. My larger lathe is setup for flood use, and going to give it a try once it's back up an running. Like most things, trial and error eventually get you where you want to go, and educate you along the way. :) Mike
 
Well the cold air gun should be set up to blow with the rotation of the wheel and one should have a dust collector or shop vac setup at the other end. With the high rpm of the grinding wheel and the low volume of a cold air gun It really doesn't make much difference. With that said I looked up the OP's grinder and He has a wet grinder,, so coolant is his best choice. And I agree a cold air gun isn't much use on a mill or lathe. I turn a lot of bronze bushings for press fit so I do use my gold air gun to keep it cool. Op's grinder
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I have run manual lathes with coolant systems. It is a low pressure pump and I just open it up for a drip at the tool cutting point. otherwise you will get a shower while you are working. :laughing:
 
Never understood why anyone would “mess” with flood coolant on anything other than an enclosed CNC and especially in a home shop. On manual machines I run dry most always. Sure use cutting oil for threading and sparing application of acculube for roughing and drilling Aluminum but thats about it and never have issues cutting and essentially no mess. 90% of the time use carbide tooling as the hss stuff turns blue and disintegrates and simply isn’t worth the bother. I say if the chips aren’t brown/blue coming off you’re pulling yer you know what. You can grind without coolant too just use a friable wheel, keep it dressed and go easy. Long as you don’t overheat things it works. Albeit slower. At work grinding we use a kool mist tube aimed at the interface and run air only.
I turned my guys on to it at and we much prefer it.
 
I'm running one of the HF submersible pumps on my CNC mill. I have the 1/2hp model rated at 4400 GPH. I have a bi-pass line in the system to tune the max flow. It runs about 70% open to run 4 nozzles at good pressure through a filter. I does require at least 12 gallon coolant tank to keep up.

My manual lathe came with a 1/8 hp pump. It is lower pressure but that is all it needs.
 
A big reason I want flood coolant on the surface grinder is to mitigate the dust. I don't have a collection system capable of capturing it all. My shop vac catches maybe 30%. My options would either be flood coolant, or buy a 2HP, 4" dust collection system and run a fogbuster in conjuction. The problem with that is price.

If I were in a commercial shop I would definitely get the dust collection system.
 
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