No Fog Coolant Mister

[TerryWerm]

I am working on a no fog coolant mister for my milling machine, and have drawn up the plans that are attached below. The only critical sizes are the .040" hole in the mixing block, and the .040" hole in the nozzle. The air passage in the mixing block should stay about the same size also. Everything else can be changed.

I do not yet have a set of plans drawn in metric, but will see what I can come up with over the course of the next week.

There are seven separate pdf files in the zip file, one for each page of plans. The bill of materials page also includes sources for most of the items I used.

[stevehuckss396]

Wow!  That's very kind of you to share your design. Thank you.

[TerryWerm]

No problem, Steamer. I kinda figure that's what this place is all about. I have started making mine, and am taking photos as I go so that I can post a build thread when it's done. Problem is that my machines are currently all out in my garage and it's -16*F out there right now. You can get frostbite just touching the handles on the mill! All I need is one warmer day (expected later in the week) to drill the holes in the mixer block and to make the nozzle. The rest I can do indoors where it's warm. So, if there aren't too many things getting in the way in the near future, I should be able to get it all built and ready to go in the next couple of weeks.

[AussieJimG]

Thanks for sharing Terry, I have filed it away for a little while but I do need one of these.

Jim

[cfellows]

Thanks for the plans, Terry.  What kind of coolant do you plan to use?

Chuck

[TerryWerm]

CHUCK!!!!  Glad to see that you are feeling better. I know that the flu bug going around is pretty ugly.

I plan to use Kool Mist, though a person could use any light coolant, even soluble oil if one wanted. I have used Kool Mist in the past, and really liked it. A friend of mine built a no fog mister similar to mine and he has his set up with two regulators, one for nozzle air, and one for coolant, but has only one needle valve for the coolant. I am thinking that this one should work well with one regulator and two needle valves, one for the air and one for the coolant. Time will tell for sure.  Anyway, this friend of mine has used his for several hours already and has only gone through a few ounces of coolant. He sets his so that the air is blowing just hard enough to keep most of the chips pushed away from the cutter, but is not blowing them all over the place. Coolant is set so that the target area is barely getting damp. Between the cooling effect of the expanding air and the evaporative cooling of the coolant, he is finding that his parts and cutters are ending up cooler than the ambient air.

For aluminum I will still use a dab of WD40 in a spray bottle, as I think it works better than Kool Mist on aluminum.

I do plan to do a build thread on this once I get mine all done. I am taking photos as I go so that I can post those also. If it ever warms up enough in the garage to do some machine work (it's -18*F out there at the moment) I will get the nozzle, the mixing block, and the hose nipples made. Once they are done I can do the rest of the work sitting at the kitchen table. I hope to have it all built within the next couple of weeks if work doesn't keep me too busy.

[gerritv]

An elegant design, thank you.
What level of air pressure is required to run this?

Gerrit

[Stuart]

For us lot in the UK  the canisters quoted can be found here
http://www.ro-world.co.uk/acatalog/10inch_Filter_Housings.html


Stuart

[b.lindsey]

That's a nice design Terry. I will certainly follow along on the build and hope it works as well as you expect. Thanks for sharing the plans!

Bill

[TerryWerm]

An elegant design, thank you.
What level of air pressure is required to run this?

Gerrit

5 to 10 PSI (35 to 70 kPa) seems to be plenty for the guys that have built these in the past.

In the past?? Yes.  This concept is not new, nor is this type of coolant system. They are even commercially available, but are expensive. Many of these have been built, but nobody has any decent plans available. So, I took the critical dimensions and started from there to design my own. It was only logical to create drawings and share them.

[TerryWerm]

For those of you that work in the metric system, here is a metric copy of drawing 6, which is the only one that has any critical dimensions on it. I apologize that some of the thread sizes do not convert directly over, I simply opened my drawing in my CAD program, changed over to metric dimensions and then created a new pdf.  I hope you find it useful and don't have too much trouble with the thread sizes.

[gerritv]

Thank you Terry, that is airbrush compressor territory. Which is perfect for me as I do most of my machining in a spare room in our condo.

Gerrit

[TerryWerm]

You are most welcome, Gerrit. Another advantage you will find is that with no fog in the air, everything in the room no longer gets coated in a sticky oily film.  The estimated air consumption of this type of applicator is about 0.3 CFM. If your airbrush compressor is capable of that much air you should be in good shape.

[Hugh Currin]

Terry:

Did you finish the low fog miser? I'd like to build one but was waiting for a final evaluation. Did it work well? Any plan updates after building it (there are always plan updates after construction)?

Thank you for making the plans available. I've seen others but, as you said, no other complete plans.

Anyone else build one? Other comments?

Thanks.

Hugh

[TerryWerm]

Hugh,

I have started construction of mine, and have found a mistake on the Bill of Materials page, but it is minor. I will post a corrected version of that page however after construction is complete.  As for current progress, I should just go ahead and start a construction thread, but wanted to hold off a bit longer. Here in Minnesota we have been enjoying what I refer to as an 'old fashioned winter'. It seems to snow every other day, and when it's not snowing it's so cold that the thermometer never gets above 0* F.  My machines are out in my unheated garage at present, and plans are underway for a basement shop, but shop construction has taken a back seat to some other things of greater importance.  Anyway, I plan to finish my no fog coolant applicator in the next two or three weeks if things warm up enough that my hands don't freeze to the handcranks on my mill.  All I need is a good afternoon in the shop with temps above freezing to get the job done, then get it posted.

A friend of mine did build one, but he made his own design based on the same internal dimensions.  It works very well for him, and he  is very happy with it. When I get mine done, I intend to do a complete test, such as pushing it to high pressures and high volumes just to see if there conditions under which it will create a fog.  This would be done so that I can publish some working limits of the device so as not to develop expectations that run too high. Let's face it, if you use enough air volume at a high enough pressure, you will atomize some of the coolant no matter what. I think it would be good to know where that threshold lies.

Another individual indicated that he uses a standard Kool Mist system without creating any fog in his shop. I have used that system and it is good. It can be used at low pressures and air volumes without creating a fog in the air, but the threshold where the fogging problem begins is at a much lower pressure simply due to the fact that the coolant is drawn up by a vacuum created in the venturi of the mixing block. The action in the venturi by its very nature tends to atomize the liquid being drawn up. The no fog system does not use a venturi and supplies the coolant at a slight pressure,  reducing the atomization of the fluid.

[Dave Sohlstrom]

Terry

Nice design. I did not have time to build one so I bought a Fog Buster. One thing that Fog Buster does is use a twin hose from the tank to the nozzle. They also have only on valve at the nozzle block to adjust coolant flow.

I think that McMaster has the twin tubing.

Dave

[steamer]

Thanks for that Terry!

Dave

[Hugh Currin]

Terry:

Thanks for the update. Good to hear you're still working on it.

I suppose if the coolant freezes, a mister won't do much good. I certainly understand not wanting to work in an unheated shop in MN. And you mentioned lots of snow, I'd been wondering where all our snow had gone. We'd sure take it back if you're tired of it!

I have one of the cool mist systems, I think they make several and mine is the least expensive, and I can sure fog up the shop if I put my mind to it.

Thanks again. Please keep us up to date, I for one am interested.

Hugh

[TerryWerm]

Hugh,

I can understand the concern over the lack of snow in your area. Folks in my part of the country do not typically understand the grave importance of ample snowfall in the mountains to people in your area. I have relatives that have an orchard in Colorado, and snow in the mountains (or lack of it) each year makes all the difference between getting a crop or not. We were visiting them in mid August one year when the irrigation water ran out on the day were  getting ready to leave. The apples were right at that critical point where they really needed the added moisture, but it wasn't going to come. That was a really tough day to be visiting as the air was pretty heavy, if you know what I mean.

I certainly will keep everyone up to date, it is on the top of my list right now, I just need to keep bypassing it for the time being, but should be able to continue with it very soon. I will post a build thread on it, and will post notice of that build thread here as well.