On Sun, 18 Apr 2021 13:02:50 -0700, Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>
wrote:

>At no time since I have started using water soluble coolant have I used
>tap water. I am on a private well here and have modest to high
>dissolved solids. I was buying 20-50 gallons at a time from the local
>grocery stores of whatever their store brand was when I first started.
>I didn't really want to be dependent on a water service to fill a tank,
>and I'm not sure they provide distilled as a service anyway. I think
>for those services its all RO filtered for drinking water.
>
>I looked at DI, but then I either have to recharge the DI system
>periodically or I have to hire a service to handle it. I don't like
>being dependent, and I wasn't 100% sure DI would do the trick.
>
>I bought a small distiller. Really intended for residential cooking and
>drinking. It produces about 11 gallons per day and has a 4.5 gallon
>reservoir. It has worked for several years, but the setup and
>production marginal. I can go through 10+ gallons a day if all the
>machines are running and the reservoir is about the right size to mix up
>one bucket at a time. If I remembered to fill and premix buckets even
>on days I am not running all the machines all day I had "enough" coolant
>on hand. I've been using it for several years.
>
>Last week it died, and I have been shut down. Well I have been shutdown
>dealing with some family issues, but the distiller probably kept me from
>running some short jobs. Ok. I really didn't want to work anyway. I
>spent this morning cleaning it out, and replaced the fuse and it seems
>to be working ok again. I need to clean out the evaporator tank more
>often I think.
>
>Some time back I contacted Master Chemical and asked what level of water
>treatment I should have and they were pretty noncommittal so I just
>stuck with distilled.
>
>I have to ask. For those of you using water soluble coolant in a small
>shop are you using for your water source?
>
>P.S. I just ordered a new distiller with a 25 gallon reservoir. The
>one I have will go on the shelf as a backup when the new one arrives.

Small shop, 30 gallons in Mill, about 35 in Lathe, 2 gallons in
horizontal saw.

I use tap water, the city sources its water from the river. I never
had any problems I could blame on the coolant or the water.

I never run any job long enough to test tool life, I can run SS,
aluminum and carbon steel all in the same day.

Randy
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Randy