A shop in Akron taught me to check my coolant mix with a refractometer

I was doing a repair job at a shop in Akron last month and their operator was fighting a ton of tool wear. They kept bumping feeds and speeds but nothing helped. I asked if they checked the coolant concentration and they said they just eyeballed it. I ran a refractometer over their sump and it read like 2 percent, way low. After we topped it up to 8 percent, the tool life doubled on the same job. I used to trust the pump sticker on my mixing unit, now I check the actual mix every Monday morning. Anyone else run into a shop that skips this and pays for it in inserts?

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logan_white592mo ago

Guilty as charged, I used to trust the sticker so hard my mix was basically fancy water until a job started screaming at me. Now I check it every Monday too, mostly because I'm cheap and hate buying new inserts.

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