This is the coolant system I've built into my lathe stand. It consists of a 10 litre plastic jerry can, a $25 centrifugal pump off ebay, a couple of flexible nozzles and a heap of retic pipe and fittings. It's been running for eight years now with no problems. The coolant container was originally on the back of the stand, but proved a little difficult to get to to top up, so, I moved it to the side. It's a sealed looping system, so very little coolant loss and it's continually aerated, so no smells. Here's a video showing it working.
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Lathe stand coolant system.
- Thread starter th62
- Start date
His video shows a recirculating loop, with the nozzle feeds coming off the loop just before a restriction (so they have the desired pressure). So recirculating back into the reservoir aerates the coolant. But it only does so when the pump runs, so I’d think it requires the pump to be run with some regularity. I know others use aquarium pumps to bubble through the reservoir for the same purpose (and run them 24/7).