DennisCA
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- 1,966
- Location
- Finland
I cleaned out the sump on the FP2, been putting it off because it was nasty work.
Corner to the left was difficult to reach
This is what the pump sucks up fluid through. When I got it up it was covered in brown goop but also wrapped with a fine mesh held in place with steel wire. Looked like an addition after the fact.
Inside was a coarser mesh that looked factory installed, I removed it and used the finer mesh to make a new one that fit inside instead.
I'm not quite done with cleaning the sump out yet, once the machine is back together and the pump is running I will fill it with warm water & potassium hydroxide and flush it out.
After that... I am not sure, use the machine with coolant or not... I have before used Ballistol and water in a squirt bottle, this worked well and never rusted anything on my lathe. But this summer I bought commercial coolant concentrate and mixed up that in a squirt bottle and it's nasty stuff man. Attacked the zinc coating of some sheet metal coversI had made for the lathe and left a sticky residue and caused rust. I really thought a comercial solution would have been better than my homemade ballistol mixture. I am not at all wanting to use up the keg of concentrate I bought if this is how it behaves. Been thinking if I can sell it.
I've heard some people use neat oil in their coolant systems instead, apparently it lasts decades, just topped up now and then. And never any rust issues. But you don't want to use it with cast iron then, and it smokes and is messier and has no real cooling effect. I do think the few times I would want to use coolant I would want it for the cooling effect too.
I've also considered making my own fog buster instead and move it between the lathe and mill, that would use a lot less coolant and make less of a mess. But it also feels like a waste to have two machines equipped with coolant pumps and not use it...
Corner to the left was difficult to reach
This is what the pump sucks up fluid through. When I got it up it was covered in brown goop but also wrapped with a fine mesh held in place with steel wire. Looked like an addition after the fact.
Inside was a coarser mesh that looked factory installed, I removed it and used the finer mesh to make a new one that fit inside instead.
I'm not quite done with cleaning the sump out yet, once the machine is back together and the pump is running I will fill it with warm water & potassium hydroxide and flush it out.
After that... I am not sure, use the machine with coolant or not... I have before used Ballistol and water in a squirt bottle, this worked well and never rusted anything on my lathe. But this summer I bought commercial coolant concentrate and mixed up that in a squirt bottle and it's nasty stuff man. Attacked the zinc coating of some sheet metal coversI had made for the lathe and left a sticky residue and caused rust. I really thought a comercial solution would have been better than my homemade ballistol mixture. I am not at all wanting to use up the keg of concentrate I bought if this is how it behaves. Been thinking if I can sell it.
I've heard some people use neat oil in their coolant systems instead, apparently it lasts decades, just topped up now and then. And never any rust issues. But you don't want to use it with cast iron then, and it smokes and is messier and has no real cooling effect. I do think the few times I would want to use coolant I would want it for the cooling effect too.
I've also considered making my own fog buster instead and move it between the lathe and mill, that would use a lot less coolant and make less of a mess. But it also feels like a waste to have two machines equipped with coolant pumps and not use it...
