Hey!
We’ve had ongoing and intermittent leaks from the underside of our 8L lathe since it arrived. You need to know that my school was too frugal (cheap) to get the stand, so it’s on a sturdy table. Tormach also, accidentally, sent us the wrong coolant pump/plumbing hardware combo originally but they were awesome in getting the fix out to us (with bonuses!) extra quickly. We’ve got it narrowed down to the return drain coming from the pan under the drain area. I have the tubing attached to the brass hose barb with a “radiator-clamp” tightened down almost too tight. That’s where it’s leaking from now. Any suggestions for fixing that type of connection issue? I’d have to hire someone to re-lift the machine if we were to re-plumb the whole thing and I don’t want to do that unless that’s all there is to do. I almost feel like I need to be asking this question on a Plumbing forum. Any help or suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. Everything works great when we run without coolant!
It’s actually no better with the stand/coolant tank. I’ve had my 8L for about 4 months and I’ve had nothing but coolant in the floor. I’ve tried several things to alleviate the problem and I have slowed it down a good bit, but it’s by no means “dry” around this lathe. This is definitely the biggest issue I’ve had with my lathe also. Just a bit of a hint if you do have to lift the machine to make any repairs, that can be done with a mobile engine crane and nylon lifting straps like you would use for pulling an engine out of a vehicle. That’s what I used to set mine into place. It works great and you won’t have to break the bank getting a rigger involved or renting a forklift.
Hey!
I haven’t run mine more than 10 minutes since I “fixed” my situation. In the mix up with being sent the wrong stuff for my coolant setup initially, I had purchased tubing for the return that had a 5/8" ID. The OD of the hose barb was almost .600 (hard to reach spot, you’re right), so it seemed like it would work especially after clamping down a hose clamp on it. Wrong. I got the 1/2" tubing, forced it on the barb, and tightened down the hose clamp. Not a single drip since then. We’ll see how it goes going forward.
To be clear, I’m the one that bought the 5/8" tubing based on my lack of plumbing knowledge. I ended up bringing a hose barb for 1/2" tubing into Fusion 360 from McMaster-Carr and measuring it. 9/16" is the OD if the barb for 1/2" tubing. Who knew?
Because we used our own workbench instead of the Tormach stand, it’s higher off the floor than our engine hoist can lift. We ended up lever/fulcruming it to be able to work on it. A minor re-design with some removeable panels or something would be great.
Hey @LARRY_PHILLIPS. Sorry to hear you are having these coolant issues. We have heard about these issues from a few other customers as well and we are working on a fix with a design change to the stands. There was a past post about a potential fix to this issue. 8L stand leaking coolant on the floor - #4 by Brian_Carlquist
Thanks , I appreciate that y’all are addressing this. Im pretty sure what I’ll do is make a plate that I can seal in place to block off about an inch to an inch and a half all around the perimeter of the chip pan . If this doesn’t work I think I’m going back to square one and design a chip pan of my own… I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it needs to alleviate this problem.