rykk
spending too much on rocks
Member since September 2011
Posts: 428
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Post by rykk on Oct 17, 2012 22:31:45 GMT -5
I'm slowly getting in gear building a 14-16 inch slabber and one of the hundred things I think of to slow me down - lol - is how deep should the oil/coolant sump be? Looking at the chassis I have, I reckon that with 10 to 15 gallons of oil, it would be 6 to 8 inches deep. Is that enough? Too much in terms of $$ spent for coolant? How deep is the oil, typically, in a saw this size? Thanks, Rick
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The Dad_Ohs
fully equipped rock polisher
Take me to your Labradorite!!
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,860
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Post by The Dad_Ohs on Oct 17, 2012 23:09:02 GMT -5
Typically you only need to have the bottom 1/2 inch of the blade in the coolant... My 18 inch use 3 gallons to get a depth of 1/2 inch on the blade and about an inch, inch and a half of oil in the bottom, so it doesn't sling the rock crud on the blade when cutting, and it works fine.
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Saskrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2007
Posts: 1,852
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Post by Saskrock on Oct 17, 2012 23:20:34 GMT -5
I would recommend a big volume. The saw I have has a very small volume and gets gunked up fast because of it . I have to change oil a lot. Unless you want to clean saws as a new hobby think big But with that said the blade doesn't have to go in deep, just past the cutting edge like The Dad_Ohs said.
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Post by phil on Oct 19, 2012 12:27:06 GMT -5
Our commercial made Covington only uses 5 gallons of oil, and is about 3 inches deep (a guess). Per manufacturer's rec's, the oil only has to come up on the blade to cover the diamond area plus 1/8th inch.
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Post by johnjsgems on Oct 19, 2012 14:05:31 GMT -5
The more oil the cooler the oil will run. You could always use a pump and reservoir below saw drain fitting. My 24" HP is set up that way. I have 10 gallons in the barrel under the saw with a canvas bag over the drain fitting. The oil runs nice and cool. With a splash system better to have 3-5 gallons in sump with as mentioned the cutting rim of blade covered. Filling too high increases load on motor and causes excessive oil spray which finds every possible place to leak out.
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sheltie
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since January 2012
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Post by sheltie on Oct 19, 2012 14:26:24 GMT -5
My new HP 16" requires that at least 3/8" of oil cover the bottom of the blade. In my case, that is about 3 1/2 - 4 gallons.
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The Dad_Ohs
fully equipped rock polisher
Take me to your Labradorite!!
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,860
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Post by The Dad_Ohs on Oct 19, 2012 21:51:03 GMT -5
The nice thing about a deep bottom area under the blade is that you can go longer without changing the oil because the crud level will take longer to reach the blade... also, if the saw box is angled slightly lower in the front, maybe and 1/8 inch max, the crud will accumulate in the front section first which on my saw is where the drain is and then work its way to the back, blade, area.
The bad news is that if you have a deep bottom to your saw you have to add more oil to make it to the blade, $17/gallon is the cheapest I've found for oil so far, unless you buy it in the 55 gallon drum and then you have to pay freight unless you can go there to pick it up. Also, when you finally do have to clean out the saw... whew!!!! you gonna have a lot of crud in there to clean out!!!! (5 gal buckets run $30 for shipping, 55 gal drums can be an extra $100 or more for shipping!)
After removing the saw blade and slab tray from my 18 inch Lortone, it still took me almost 2 hours to get the bottom cleaned out!! I used a plastic putty knife/scraper, 4 inches wide. I'm investing in a ball valve to make draining a lot easier as I have a steel cap on a nipple in there now.
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Post by phil on Oct 20, 2012 14:39:20 GMT -5
-snip- The bad news is that if you have a deep bottom to your saw you have to add more oil to make it to the blade, $17/gallon is the cheapest I've found for oil so far, -snip- After removing the saw blade and slab tray from my 18 inch Lortone, it still took me almost 2 hours to get the bottom cleaned out!! I used a plastic putty knife/scraper, 4 inches wide. I'm investing in a ball valve to make draining a lot easier as I have a steel cap on a nipple in there now. That $17 per gallon is why we switched to mineral oil (baby oil). At the vet supply it's $14 per gallon. And no smell, no nasties. Cools as well as the other, filters well, and the crud drops out of solution in about 10 minutes. Nice! 2 hours to clean? hehehe.. that's why we clean every couple months of light use, maybe 50 hours of cutting time. Last clean up took 15 minutes to drain ( I installed a ball valve and tubing to drain direct to a filter bag in a bucket) and scrape. 3 days to filter (saved us $75 or so in reclaimed oil) and when I put the filtered oil back in, I used a brush and cleaned all the sliders, trays, bearing surfaces, etc, and the saw is running faster and smoother than ever with all that crud gone from the vise and auto feed parts etc. Hope that helps.
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
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Post by QuailRiver on Oct 21, 2012 1:20:53 GMT -5
Saskrock and The Dad_Ohs are correct. The larger the reservoir the less frequently you'll have to clean the saw. And since you are making your own, you may want to consider an angled bottomed or a recessed bottom in the reservoir similar to the Diamond Pacific TR-18" Saw or the old no-longer produced Raytech 18" slab saw.
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jspencer
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2011
Posts: 929
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Post by jspencer on Oct 21, 2012 11:42:38 GMT -5
Take some large rocks or even bricks and place in the bottom of your reservoir to displace the oil thus needing less volume of oil to reach your level. Just keep it clear around the blade and carriage area.
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Post by Rockoonz on Oct 21, 2012 16:09:42 GMT -5
My 24 and 18 inch FranToms have stepped bottoms so the oil can be fairly deep with less capacity, kind of like the bricks idea without the huge extra headache at cleaning time. The rock club has bricks in their 24, I hate cleaning it.
Lee
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rykk
spending too much on rocks
Member since September 2011
Posts: 428
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Post by rykk on Oct 24, 2012 0:01:32 GMT -5
Thanks, y'all. Yeah, my plan is to have an angled bottom to channel the bulk of the crud to the drain. I also want to compartmentalize the sump so that I can put a pump in to spray the point of contact along with the blade dipping into the oil and have relatively clean oil going through the pump. Not sure just how "heavy duty" the pump would need to be, though I'm sure an aquarium pump would be too wimpy. Anyone know anything about this?
I reckon the best thing would be to have a larger volume of oil. Expensive, but I think the important thing is for the oil to not get too hot and lose viscosity. Rick
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The Dad_Ohs
fully equipped rock polisher
Take me to your Labradorite!!
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,860
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Post by The Dad_Ohs on Oct 24, 2012 0:10:42 GMT -5
That $17 per gallon is why we switched to mineral oil (baby oil). At the vet supply it's $14 per gallon. And no smell, no nasties. Cools as well as the other, filters well, and the crud drops out of solution in about 10 minutes. Nice! $17/Gal was at TSC for mineral oil/horse laxative. I got lucky as they were in Grand opening mode when I got there and got 3 gallons for $48 & change. I wish I could get it for $14/gallon... I'd buy it by the case and not worry. The crud I had to clean was from opening too many T.Eggs and the fact that the oil was old & dirty to begin with. After filtering it twice the il seems much better and is almost clear, although I only got 3/4 of a gallon out of it after filtering. I will most definitely start my filtering much sooner this time!!!
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