[cutting edge]

Hey guys, I have a VF3-SS, been running for about one year. When looking into the sump there seems to be an excessive amount of waylube build up on the walls. I run a belt skimmer daily which I thought would help but it still continues. I am now fighting with foaming with the coolant and performance seems to be falling off as well. Has anyone else seen any issues with this on their Haas? Thanks in advance for any and all help!

[Geof]

Haas machines have a separator that theoretically recuces the amount of way oil getting into the coolant tank. This is the rectangular shaped thing on the back of the machine with a bubble level built into it, a plastic tube running to the coolant tank and a metal tube above the waste oil container. The idea of this thing is that the way oil and coolant that drains down inside the machine is separated with the oil going into the oil container and the coolant into the coolant tank. It kinda works but sometimes it fills with crud so all the way oil gets dumped into the coolant. It is easy to take off and clean out.

Regarding the skimmers I have found the oil does not separate enough just overnight to get effective cleaning. We don't even bother with them on the machines and just add anti-foam to help control the foaming. This horrifies all the purists who say you shouldn't need to add stuff like that. It works for us because our machines do production and the carry-out of coolant with chips means the coolant in our machines is replaced on a continuing basis.