A coolant flood at the plant in Toledo taught me a hard lesson

Last month I was running a 5-axis at work in Toledo and the coolant line split right at the spindle. It dumped about 20 gallons onto the floor in under a minute before I hit the e-stop. The floor was slicker than ice and my tool setter got drowned, which cost me the rest of the shift to clean and dry. Now I check every flex line for cracks before I start the morning run, no exceptions. My supervisor said "just replace it next time" but I could've ruined a $2,000 probe. Has anyone else dealt with coolant hose failures that came out of nowhere, and how do you catch them early?

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troy_adams21d agoMost Upvoted

My shop had the same thing happen on an Okuma last year. The hose looked fine on the outside but it was cracked right where the fitting crimps on. I started using a cheap borescope to look inside the flex lines once a month, that catches the swelling before it splits.