Would love some feedback on this drain concept. This is hobby-only, no commercial use. I decided against a chip tray - just keep chips in the bed of the machine. To keep it short, the concept is:
Slope the concrete pour to encourage flow towards the front of the machine.
One drain in each front corner - 2" PVC Oatey drain with replaceable screen. I figure it will be easy enough to play with mesh size since this thing has replaceable screens.
OR two (or perhaps just one?) drain in the center.
With one or two of them drains and 2" pipe you could run fire hose volumes of coolant.
Based on my experience I’d suggest more drains rather than bigger ones. The coolant will carry the swarf with it but at some point it will start stacking up. If you only have a single path of flow you will be in the same boat as others with poor drainage overall.
The main issue with the MR-1 as far as coolant drainage is there isnt anywhere for chips to collect and let coolant drain down through. Instead it all flows on a flat surface.
Other option is to use the drain setup you’re proposing but dont screen it off. Let the swarf flow out with the coolant and collect it elsewhere. Thing to consider with this concept is to keep the coolant volume and velocity up enough to reliably carry the swarf out with it. The stock pump has plenty of flow but I’d add more nozzles. I use a ring of nozzles and overall I’m happy with how mine is performing, even with steel swarf.
I installed the corner drains as sent by Langmuir . When they did not work and I had 1/2 to 3/4 inch of coolant in bottom of unit . I bored a 2 and 3/4 inch hole thru and used a 3/4 inch pvc out the bottom . If I had the ability to do my concrete over I would use the pvc shower drain my experience is one in the front is plenty. I would not pitch my concrete I would pour flat so coolant flows and chips lay where they fall . I run coolant wide open when I am working . I drop stainless weed screens in the bottom they are cheap at the beginning in the am I just suck them out with the wet dry vac and start again . Hope this helps
My thought on the large PVC is to make it easy to clean/unclog- not necessarily for massive flow.
I’m thinking the slope is still a good idea, because to drive flow down the drains you need fluid height to build up, and if you keep thing perfectly level, fluid has to build up everywhere- whereas if you slope it slightly fluid only has to build up in the lowest region to drive flow down the drains. Just like a shower I suppose. I do take the point about not motivating chips.
Now I’m thinking about ways to stop chip migration to the drains but encourage water. Baffles and such.
Only thing I would suggest to think about… If you slope the concrete the epoxy will still try to self level and possibly expose the high point in the concrete and be added thick around the drains. The epoxy is really good at leveling… no matter the under lying condition.
I would pour the epoxy with the same slope, and to achieve the concrete slope, I would shim the machine legs- so gravity used for both concrete and epoxy.
I cant vision that… The slope is going in two different directions… not sure how you would slope it one way and account for the remaining epoxy in other areas moving around not as desired. Best of luck.
as others have said. i wish i sloped it front. and not installed the stock drains. they just suck.the back ones are permanently clogged as its a bitch to get to them. fronts are clogged half the time and the huge shower one i put in works great.
