Just wondering if anyone is using these? I am considering my options at the moment, I am routing upto 1.5mm thick aluminium sheet at high spindle speeds with 1.5mm to 3mm cutters and I currently use a moderate amount of flood coolant, manually applied, which is obviously not the best solution. I am looking at the vortex air guns/tubes as my primary chioce of coolant, but do not have an air-compressor, so this must be added to the cost. I have no idea what size tube I am looking for, I have seen them from 2CFM to 15CFM, so what is the minimum size I would need? The second choice for coolant is a trico micro-drop system, which again, I need a compressor for, so what's the minimum size for this? Space in my "workshop" (read shed) is at a premium and noise levels should be low enough to stop nosey neighbours from coming around, hence all the questions. If I had the space I would buy big, but I don't. Oh yeah, perhaps someone could point me in the direction of a website that would give details on the amounts of heat generated by machining? Thanks guys!

Hi Kong,

You're talking yourself into it, I see :D

I know what that is like: first the search, then shock sets in, refusal, reluctant acceptance, then grit your teeth and write the cheque :)

http://www.tricomfg.com/store/ProdLineInfo.asp?ProdLineID=31&ProdSeg=MetalCutting

1.7 CFM for the Trico air consumption. I think you should be able to find a reasonably small compressor that can handle that volume. Maybe get one that can compress 5 or 10 CFM, so you have a bit of reserve.

The Trico unit is very quiet, you will not hear it when your machine is running.

I've poked around inside one of these Trico units, and there really isn't a heck of a lot to it. The main feature is the nozzle design: it has a siphon tube (about 3 feet of 1/16" to 3/32 vinyl tubing) feeding oil to a special brass fitting in the nozzle, and the air simply flows through a Loc-line adjustable coolant pipe, with this special brass fitting pressed into the end. When the air flows past the nozzle, it siphons the oil out. The rest of the thing is just an oil reservoir and air on-off valve. I haven't really looked closely, but the oil reservoir is sealed and pressurized to some degree. There is no visible regulator on the unit, perhaps a restrictor in the on/off valve invisibly cuts the pressure to the system. It doesn't seem like a 90 psi air blast coming out of it, even though that is the shop pressure I am feeding in.

Perhaps the air feed is through the top of the oil resevoir, then out the line to the work. A bit of pressure in the reservoir might be required help force the oil down that tiny supply tube. If you were to try to home build something, you could perhaps purchase just the nozzles and experiment from there.

Note: you can also purchase these units with a solenoid that you can interface to your cnc. This will require an intermediate relay, controlled by your available computer I/O. If you want to flick it on manually, then just save the money and do that. Its not likely that you would need to cycle the thing extensively anyways. If you had a automatic toolchanger, then cnc control would be nice.

The Vortex unit, I suspect will have a significantly higher air consumption, and be noisy as hell. I am not sure if there is a fine tuning to the air flow on that, because they are trying to make cold air with it, so it wastes a lot of air doing that.

Somehow I just knew you would reply! I like the fact that I can use a small compressor as they are dirt cheap over here, whereas the bigger 10+CFM for the vortex unit would be pricey/big/noisey. I belive you mentioned before that if I set up a nice dust-collecting shroud, this would take away the chips and mist in one hit, leaving very little residue? I know you can buy "air mufflers" to reduce the noise of the vortex tube, but they are still about 70dB of noise. I do believe I am leaning towards the trico now! Cheers Hu. One last thing, is trico the only company to supply this type of system? i have searched on Google but became bogged down with regular mist units.

Acculube also makes an air/lube system, which uses a regular air line lubricator as an oil source. The oil drip adjustment is a little finicky. But, come to think of it, that might be a much more economical solution for you. I'm having trouble finding a good link that will demonstrate this product for you.

You might have to acess them through a dealer like Travers Tool Co, or some local distributor of your own.

I guess the reason I went with the Trico originally was because of the handy electric solenoid on/off function.

Kong,

Here's another option that I use. Don't confuse this with your normal mister. This unit is by far the best I've ever seen. It will not fog up your shop and is very quiet. Air consumption is very low also.

The owner's name is Lee Hench, very nice guy. I highly recommend his units.


http://www.fogbuster.com/Frame.htm

sorry for bringing up this pretty old post.but i don't want to start another thread just for some answers.
when i first saw this vortex tube system i really got surprised.it seems best solution for my home made cnc machine,where i don't want to use coolant.
so iam planning to build one tube by self,i don't need -ve temperatures,temp near 0'c will be enough for normal machining i guess.
but iam worried abt the surface finish of the job.liquid coolant does play some role to get good surface finish.can i expect same from vortex tube?

and most ppl said this system is quite loud and noisy,so iam planning to use air silencers at the cold side of the pipe.(one used in pneumatic systems to reduce the released air noise).i hope this will work.

We've been using a cold air gun with our router. Been working great, until the humidity started increasing this summer. We have several auto-drain filters hooked up, but it does freeze up on occasion. No coolant, everything stays cleaner.

Mike

thanks for the reply med-pac
have you tried this cooling system over diff metals like Al,MS(mild steel).hows the surface finish? is there any noticeable difference when used vortex tube than liquid coolant?

any one else interested in building diy vortex tube?we can work together.

We cut alot of alum., plastics, fiberglas, and a little wood. Thicknesses ranging from .01 to 1.5 inches so far. Use the cold air for everything but the plastic. I suppose we could try to cut steel, but we have a CNC plasma also.

I'd be interested in collaborating ideas with you on this DIY gun.

Mike

thanks once again for the rpely mike.
most of us know abt vortex tube.if you don't know google is the best friend.
so lets just discuss abt the pipe constructions.
i did all the possible search on the vortex tubes in all(possible) languages.and come up with some imp points like
1.the length of hot side,cold side,shape of generator does play important role in the tubes efficiency.
2.the inner wall of the pipe(ID) shld be polished.
3.single air entry type of design in more efficient than double entry type.

the following article(which is considered as the one and only plan of diy vortex tube)
http://www.visi.com/~darus/hilsch/
according to this there is a ratio between the dia's and pipe lengths you use.so i made a rough diagram based on above article.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5317/15018921oy7.jpg

but if you compare this with commercially available tubes (cold air guns),lengths are totally different.if i go with above plan i'll end up with a really big pipe.

so ultimately my goal is to design a tube which is moderate in both efficiency and lengths.

I see the last post was 2 months ago, I am looking onto the cold air system for my router, and was thiking of building one. any results on the above posts??