Thread: Coolant Filtration

Looks good, earthmoving equipment sometimes have magnetic filters in their transmission lines... They use donut shaped with the like poles facing one another so you have

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Well OK the forum software won't let me do ASCII but you get the idea..

Hi Ray,
Looks great, will be interesting to see how long between filter changes and if the plastic will react to the coolant.
Does the coolant tank have a weir in it?

Stuart

Hi .RC,

When trying to figure out which way the magnets would work best I came across this configuration, the Hallbach array, which is designed for maximum field on the inside of the tube, what would work better for this application would be maximum field on the outside of the tube.



There is a commercial magnetic coolant filter, made by Eclipse, if I remember correctly, that says in their promotional blurb, that the arrangement of the magnets is some special customized configuration.. but they don't say what it is

I just mounted them with all the north poles facing out, because that's the way they came. There's probably a good research project in this for someone to figure out the best arrangement.

Hi Stuart,
The return line from the grinder goes into a weir and that's where 90% of the grinding dust and abrasive ends up, I'm accumulating buckets full of finely ground steel, maybe I should start looking into doing some powdered metal project..

Most of the stuff that escapes the weir is the really fine powdery stuff, and that's what is getting picked up by the magnets, the paper filter, I expected to be picking up fine abrasive, but zilch so far.. which is a good thing I guess..

Regards
Ray

PS.. I found the eclipse one, I was thinking of, http://www.newmantools.com/eclipse/micromag.htm

I was reading about powdered metal the other day, they made it sound so easy...... they didn't mention the pressures or temps involved.

Ok here is an idea for you, the coolant on my hacksaw runs back to the tank over a plastic tray. I've put a couple of large fridge magnets on that to catch swarf. Maybe something like that on the weir would help? I haven't used this idea long enough to be sure its much use on a hacksaw but it might help on a grinder. Although I guess you've got it pretty well covered now.

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

That's where I put the speaker magnets just before the pump inlet. The change to clear coolant, is interesting, you can see a lot more of what's going on, not just in grinding but in the coolant tank as well...

Incidentally, I got a book on powder metallurgy the other day, but I haven't got around to doing much studying as yet.

Regards
Ray

PS. Chuck the fridge magnets and get some rare earth magnets.

Hi Ray,
I find the rare earth magnets painful to clean, though I guess we are using them of different things, I'm just keeping some heavy swarf out the tank.

The clear coolant does sound interesting. have you thought about using it on the lathe or mill? Is there an easy way of testing the concentration?

Stuart