Soluble oil

[tmarkle]

Working on my new to me metal cutting horizontal bandsaw. It has a cooling/cutting oil resevior and pump. We carry soluable cutting and grinding oil at work that is diluted with water at between 40:1 and 10:1.
My shop is unheated so I'm wondering if this stuff will freeze once it is diluted? If it does freeze, is there another kind that won't? If it will freeze, I can just pull the pump out of the resevior and empty the lines before it gets too cold, but I want to make sure I need to before I bother.

 

[digger]

Todd M.
I have a neighbor up my way that uses that stuff.
He uses RV anti-freeze to dilute his stuff. Hi garage is unheated and I've seen him out there at -20 cuttin away.

Of course he's Norwegian too!

 

[dfrisk]

TODD - There's two types of water soluable cutting fluids (as far as I know, maybe more)....water soluable oil that turns milky white (most common) and synthetic coolants that are glycol based...similar to antifreeze. The oil types are prone to bacteria growth which makes them stink and the synthetic's aren't. The machine shop I used to work at did Blanchard grinding, boring, bandsawing, drilling/tapping, and massive amounts of milling and they used the synthetic coolant for everything. Like You said, a little can go a LONG way (@ 40:1), if You have the sythetic avail. I would use that, if not, I'd follow Charlie's suggestion and use antifreeze. It has a lubricant in it to lubricate the seal in waterpumps, which in OEM grade waterpumps is a ceramic face seal. They don't last long without lubrication. A phone call to customer service or the salesman at the distibutor Your work gets the coolant from should answer the question about the freezing point at different concentrations.

 

[tmarkle]

Denny,
That sounds feasable. It is the milky white stuff and I already mixed a full resivior. I can empty half of it back out and refill it with anti freeze. Maybe if I'm lucky, the mice will drink it out of the saw too! I even have some antifreeze that I'm not sure if it's new or used so I don't want to put it in a vehicle.

 

[dfrisk]

TODD - Why don't You run a test. Put a bit of the coolant in a plastic container and put it in the freezer. Wrap it up really good just in case it does freeze. I think You'll be O-K.