Is green cut worth the money?

[Gofast33]

I am new to this. What is the best cutting fluid for a plasma table? Or just use water?

[djreiswig]

I use water with a box of washing soda dissolved in it. It's inexpensive and keeps the rust down. It can be a little messy when the water evaporates.

[steel 35]

I use water with a box of washing soda dissolved in it. It's inexpensive and keeps the rust down. It can be a little messy when the water evaporates.

+1

[_Ogre]

I use water with a box of washing soda dissolved in it. It's inexpensive and keeps the rust down. It can be a little messy when the water evaporates.

+2

[SeanP]

I don't know if it's our water over here or the fact I drain down to a plastic tank every night but hardly put any sodium nitrite in these days and never get any problems with rust, I maybe just add 4 teaspoons to 100 gal of water.

[AdrianH]

For those of you using washing soda can you please post how much you use to what quantity of water, I have only a small table but think I may have been over doing the quantity as I got quite a lot of powdery deposits.

Adrian

[islander261]

Hello

I use about 1.5 lbs. in 90 gallons of water. The key is use enough washing soda to get the pH above 8 so the steel doesn't want to rust to bad. The higher the pH up to a point the less the steel will want to rust.

John

[_Ogre]

I use about 1.5 lbs. in 90 gallons of water.

same here

we use a little more but usually fill the 4x8 table and have 2- 55 barrels under the table
mix the washing soda in a 5 gal bucket and pour it in, i use a t-handle allen wrench chucked up in a drill
if you just pour washing soda into water it will set up like concrete

[AdrianH]

Thanks for the information doing a conversion from US gals to litres
Ib's to Kg etc. I make that around 340 Litres to 680 grams of soda, I have probably been using around 6 times that amount like using what would be equivalent to 15 gals to 1.5 lbs of soda, perhaps that is a reason for all the powdery deposits I had.

Adrian

[BensPlasmaAu]

I use water with a box of washing soda dissolved in it. It's inexpensive and keeps the rust down. It can be a little messy when the water evaporates.

+3. Srems to do a really good job and its cheap as!

[_Ogre]

plus when you need to empty your table just run the hose out to the lawn
and washing soda is cheap enough you can empty it as often as you want

[ScottF]

Forgive my ignorance but I am trying to learn. Does the washing soda bubble up in use? Do you still have to recirculate the fluid? I am all about using something cheaper if I can. I guess one of my concerns would be the formation of bacteria. I have heard horror stories of infections caused by bacteria in lathe and mill coolants that use soluble oil and I don't know if that is an issue with water tables or not.

Thanks in advance or the info!

[WyoGreen]

I've been using the same batch of washing soda since 2013 with just occasional toping up the water as it evaporates. I drain down to a plastic barrel at night. I have never had any issues with algae growth, smells, bubbles or anything else. I think the high PH inhibits anything nasty growing in the water. If I need to pick anything up out of the water, I generally use a magnet on a stick, so I rarely have any of the water on my hands.

Steve

[_Ogre]

no bubbling, no recirculating

we do use a splash of pond algaecide in our table, maybe wyogreen uses more washing soda
we change out the table water every 6-12 months, never worried about hands in water

do pre-mix the washing soda in a 5 gallon bucket with a paint stirrer in a drill

[ScottF]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[ETCWeld]

I know this is an old post but I started using the green additive and now I have a table full of slime. As soon as I get back to the shop I'll post a picture and the name brand, but I've only had a minor issue with some slime like algae up til now.
Before I went on summer vacation I cleaned everything really good. I reused a lot of the green additive, but when I got down to the last 25 gallons or so I just dumped it, scrubbed and rinsed out my tub and topped the table off with water. I went back to the shop today and the entire surface was covered in a sheet of this slime.
I came here to see if anyone else had been dealing with it. Regardless of how many times I washed my hands, I will also add the last few months I've gotten several infections in the cuts on my hands and I thought this was a contributing factor.

Any suggestions on my slime problem would be appreciated, but for the sake of the thread and ppl who might need it in the future I will post any progress I make.

[adbuch]

I've never used the green additive, but I do use Hangsterfer S-500 CF added to my water. I normally mix it about 4 oz per gallon for my cnc machines, but dilute it down to around maybe 2 oz per gallon for my plasma water table. I have no problem with algae, and I use it mainly for the anti-corrosive properties as my water pan is constructed from 11 ga. steel. I've been using it for over 6 years now with no complaints.

David

[acourtjester]

I also use the washing soda solution to clean the metal parts after soaking in muriatic acid and water for dross and mill scale removal.

[ETCWeld]

I spoke to Mark at Plasma Green and he was awesome. He answered the phone, never put on hold and he was spot on with his suggestions.
My PH was at 7.5 and it needed to be 8.8 or better. The day after I was able to follow up it was almost perfect and by the end of that day it was!
https://youtube.com/shorts/gXnavwukwM0

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[Plasma Green Mark]

Just reading this! Sorry I'm late to the party, but thanks for using our Plasma Green ETC Weld! Your table looks great! Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.