Tom Senior Suds Tank

Good Morning.

I'm after some advice on the suds tank in the stand of my Tom Senior Mill.

Basically I would appear to have some bacteria growth in there. Nothing too horrific and little to no smell, but definitely there. I'd really like to clean the tank and start afresh, possibly with neat oil.

Looking at pictures of stripped Tom Seniors I know it's going to be difficult to clean the inside of the tank well. I am not able to strip the machine. so I was wondering if anyone can offer any guidance on any chemicals or methods that can be employed to kill all of the bacteria present prior to draining and changing of coolant.

Any help or advice would be fantastic. Obviously I'm not too keen on adding anything that will damage the machine or workpieces.

Many thanks in advance.

No involvement with this company but this might do the trick, or, contact your coolant supplier.

Might be available in small qtys from a model engineers supplier.

Brian

**LINK**

It was not that easy to clean our one with it in bits, and the accessibility was ten times as good. You can only try putting in a hot solution of biological washing tablets and leaving it overnight. Fortunately, the bottom of the tank is above floor level, so you can syphon it out. If the stuff coming out looks filthy, it would be worth repeating the process until the mix looks clean. Then plenty of rinsing is required so the new suds isn't contaminated. At the museum, we don't use any pumped coolant, but use Rocol diluted to 10% in bottles, it already contains biocides.  When you eventually refill, it would be safer to use a stronger mix for your soluble oil, and hopefully the antibacterial properties would remain for longer.

Edited By old mart on 19/06/2020 14:04:48

When I was in charge of toolmaking factories this was a bug bearer for me. The main problem was caused by oil from slideway lube system and cutting and tapping oil getting in to the coolant. This promotes the bacteria to grow and we installed skimmers and a mat floating on the coolant to absorb oil. We also put in a bacteriacide in to the coolant to also help prevent growth of bacteria. Also if the coolant is not used it also goes stale and the machines in the factory coolant was run evan if not on the work just to keep it circulating at least part of the day. If the coolant went off we had to pump it out and discard it, flush through with a cleaner to remove oily deposits pump that out and flush through with an antibacterial cleaner and discard that. Then we would refill with coolant and add another antibacterial to the coolant. A pain in the bum!. Try and keep it oil free perhaps if you are not using the coolant try to stop oil contamination and pump it around to stop it going off. Some of the machines I worked on held up to 2000 ltrs of coolant and the cost of getting rid of the old coolant was almost as much as the replacement new coolant.

Guys, these are great replies, thank you.

David George - what was the antibacterial cleaner you used please?

Thank you.