Thread: Cheap oil skimmer I can buy for a cnc?

Hare and forbes have a $500 model, I just can't bare to spend that at the moment! I'd rather spend it on tooling!

I also, however, am extremely lazy... There are many good models over in the USA, but our exchange rate is terrible as we all know. Anyone have any great ideas or sources for a cnc coolant oil skimmer?

I should add I use the cnc once every week to fnite at the moment, busy with my main job, and it sits dormant at a friends shop in the meantime. I want to be able to come over and stop it from going rancid once a week, so i wont be using it very often.

Edit - just found this - https://youtu.be/yuvvgqj8b3E?t=723 - makes an oil skimmer out of a plastic bucket and an aquarium pump. Looks great.

Hi J3D,

Remember oil floats on top of water/coolant ! So any tank that has a weir across the top extending a couple of inches or more below the water surface will trap oil on one side and the clean water/coolant will end up on the other side.

How you remove the oil on the surface is up to you. Blotting paper works as does skimming it off. But you must keep the water/coolant level above the bottom of the weir or you will end up with oil on both sides.

We made one using a 400mm disc of 6mm polypropylene and a geared motor, fairly easy as our coolant tank had a separator built in.
Also have a Skimpy belt which works ok, probably a little expensive now.

https://www.skimpyoilskimmers.com/

We have a vertex one at work, think it was about $300, but that was a few years ago. Skimmers seem to be expensive for such a simple thing. shop around to, H&F isn't the only tooling supplier in the country and they aren't always the cheapest. the other thing to look at is a coolant coalescer, might be easier to DIY. What do you think of your mill?

try this mob
https://www.dimac.com.au/product-cat.../oil-skimmers/

I fitted one of the Disc type with diverter, from Dimac, to a CNC lathe at work, it does remove some of the tramp oil but not all of it, I will try the belt type next time.