I am sure it wont come as a suprise to many when I tell you that the Artful Bodger has never owned a lathe before, in fact has never really seen one except for a few minutes, just one day, many years ago when he did get to see a lathe close up in the school workshop!
So I have this new lathe and I learn something every day and I try out new functions as I learn about them. Today was a test of the coolant system, until now I have used a brush and a bottle of cutting oil on a sort of ad hoc basis but today I mixed up two litres of soluable coolant and poured it in the tank.
Turning on the pump made a satisfactory noise but there was no flow out the nozzle, Artful Bodger scratched his balding head and thought maybe 2 litres is not enough so he mixed another 2 and poured that into the tank but still no flow. Then AB discovered the nozzle has a cut off position.
OK, so lots of nice milky white coolant running and being flung over the tool, the work, the chuck, the wall, the window, SWMBO's nice blue Suzuki car and of course me. Reducing spindle speed proved a temporary solution.
Getting maybe overly keen with all this coolant flying around I pushed the feed a little harder and was pleased as the thick streamers of steel peeled off the tool, then the tip broke!
The unanswered questions include when should coolant be used? How is one supposed to stop the lathe getting soaked in the stuff or does it not matter? Do I have to dry everything off and re-oil when finished for the day? Whoever thought that all the coolant in the chip tray would ever find its way to the drain? I guess I will have to get a few big sponges and stop using old cardboard cartons for putting the swarf in.
