tramp oil skimmers

[Quickmike]

We are looking for a cheap but effective oil skimmer. I'm looking for recomndations on what is the best bang for the buck. Zebra, Little tramp, Abaniki,brand and style belt style or wheel?

[John13]

I have a Zebra sidewinder in each of my mini mills and they work good for me.

[gargodude]

Try a Skimerator. Way more effective than conventional skimmers and it also aerates your coolant to prevent anaerobic bacteria. I have used disk, belt and tube type skimmers and the same thing always happens. They work for a while, then get all gunked up and stop working. The Skimerators are about $400 and worth every penny. You will end up paying about $200 anyway for a good quality conventional skimmer that only does half the job. Here is the website: http://www.design-mfg.net/Skimerator/Skimerator.htm

[Rob @ Target Machine]

We have a pile of skimmers out back, for the same reason.

 

They work for a while, but are a pain to use.

 

A coalescer is the way to go in the long term.

 

You can get away with a skimmer if you don't mind cleaning it and cleaning up after it, but I would just go for a "real solution" to the tramp oil problem. IMHO

[FP1]

The belt or disc skimmers only work well when they are new for some reason. +1000 on the Zebra skimmerators! These work very well once you know how to use them. Get one for each machine and don't move them around. I skim for 24 hours and then turn it off for the next 24 hours to let the oil float to the top. Do this for a week or so before you open the valve to let the oil drain off. You need at least a half inch of oil floating on top before you let it drain off otherwise you will be throwing away coolant.

[Rob @ Target Machine]

That looks like it'll do the trick.

 

We have a coolant cooker to boil off the water.

 

We don't use it much since we got coalescers.

 

If you use them correctly, you will get 95% oil, which is alot cheaper to get rid of than oil mixed with coolant.