Cheng Ki Coolant Reservoir

[cannuck]

I bought a Cheng Ki Bridgeport clone that is about 50 years old. It came with a separate coolant tank and pump, but the base casting was clearly intended to collect runoff under the knew and store it inside column. There are no electrical fitting holes to bring power inside so assume the remote tank has been there from day 1. Any comments on this or other clone mill coolant reservoirs

 

[Ironman]

That stuff is revolting, and makes a horrible mess inside the column. Mine had a pump in there and drains from the table. I cleaned up what I could, threw out the pump and tank and poured a bag of floor dry into the knee base, and bolted the cover back on. I tried gun wash, gas, varsol and 4000psi pressure wash and it was still hanging on. I had to scrape all the outside surfaces and rub with rags and varsol to clean it up.
I'll never use any coolant on a mill or lathe.

 

[phaxtris]

+1 coolant makes a huge mess on both the mill and lathe, I use coolant/lubricant as minimally as possible

Hard to push carbide hard enough on a manual machine to really benefit from the mess

 

[cannuck]

Thanks for the input. Exactly what I was looking for. I will stay with the remote tank/pumps/drains and I have to admit I seldom use coolant on lathe and when I do I long ago dumped my gravity flood system for a hand pump. The drawback on the new mill of using column would also be volume, as the drain under the knee has very little volume due to verticle distance above bottom of column.

 

[Ironman]

The only coolant I use now on the mill is air fed at 5-10 psi from the coolant nozzle, if needed.

 

[cannuck]

The only coolant I use now on the mill is air fed at 5-10 psi from the coolant nozzle, if needed.

I tried those many years ago, but started to think about how much of that oily chemical mist I could be inhaling and passed on it.