The day a coolant line turned my shop floor into a slip and slide

I was running a batch of aluminum parts on our old Haas in Phoenix when a fitting blew and sprayed the whole aisle. My foreman walked in right as I was sliding a trash can lid under me to reach the shutoff valve, and just said 'nice form'. Anyone else have a weird fix for a sudden coolant flood?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith_bennett3d ago

You said you were running aluminum, but that Haas must have been set up for steel. Aluminum jobs almost never run enough coolant pressure to blow a line like that. I bet someone had the pump cranked way up for a previous job and forgot to turn it back down. That high pressure will find the weakest old hose every time. Your trash can lid move was smart, but fixing the pump settings would have stopped it from happening at all.

the_sam2d ago

Wait, so you're saying the pressure setting is a manual thing? I always thought those pumps auto-adjusted based on the material code.

irisowens2d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my buddy's story. His shop had a big flood from a cracked sump tank. They were all standing around staring at it, and the new guy just runs and grabs a bunch of those absorbent pads from the welding area. He starts stuffing them into the crack like it was a sinking boat, holding it long enough for them to get the pump shut down. It was a total mess, but it worked. They called him the 'quick patch kid' after that.