Mount my machine horizontally or shopvac?

[peterb]

I am trying to avoid building an enclosure for my machine and waterproofing all the electricals, so I have two ideas:

I was thinking of tilting my machine 90 degrees forward to make it sit horizontally like an HMC to help reduce chip clogging and all coolant would fall off into a reservoir. To compensate for the weight of the table when tilted, I was going to add a spring.

The other option is using a shopvac. I was going to put a pump inside the drum of the shopvac and run coolant across the endmill towards the hose of the shopvac to create a loop system with hopefully minimal spraying.

Can anyone think of any drawbacks before I go ahead and spend time on this?

[BrendaEM]

Won't the column bend, letting the table rotate, perhaps in a way that might be unsymmetrical.

There might be issues with the ballnuts/leadnuts not wanting to handle the weight, as perhaps the those parts that support the weight of the machine head should be heavier.

Perhaps the z-axis movement might not be as precise/repeatable as the other two, without the weight loading on it.

Ground fault protectors are our friends.

Just playing the devil's advocate.

[Pres]

Your ShopVac idea sounds unique and interesting.

However, I doubt that a ShopVac "wet filter" will get out all of the mist.

Perhaps you could put an exhaust from the ShopVac to the outside to take care of the coolant mist not trapped.

Whatever, it sounds alot better than the usual 100% overboard for mist coolant.

Good luck with it,
Pres

[project5k]

seems like a lot of work to me for something that i just dont see that much benifit to.. if you use more of a flood coolant system, it will carry off the chips, the mill could sit over a catch pan and you wouldnt have that much spray.. only what gets thrown up by the cutter itself.. if you keep the coolant moving as a fluid rather than atomizing it with a mister... seems it would be easier on the lungs... also, i wouldnt think that a shopvac would like to be left just running and running for hours...

just my thoughts tho, i'm not trying to bash on anyone's ideas...

[Pres]

Originally Posted by project5k seems like a lot of work to me for something that i just dont see that much benifit to.. if you use more of a flood coolant system, it will carry off the chips, the mill could sit over a catch pan and you wouldnt have that much spray.. only what gets thrown up by the cutter itself.. if you keep the coolant moving as a fluid rather than atomizing it with a mister... seems it would be easier on the lungs... also, i wouldnt think that a shopvac would like to be left just running and running for hours...

Interesting. I experienced EXACTLY the opposite!

IME, flood coolant is a PITA (expensive, cumbersome and messy) compared to mist.

The benefits of mist for the small number of items home machinists produce makes it the coolant of choice.
Simply being able to see the cutter position as it is machining the part is essential since most of my jobs are one-offs.

A "tool-proof" run is the only run made because I've usually only got one part to machine.
The mister keeps the chips blown away from me (sucked into the ShopVac) so I can closely monitor the cutting.

Pres

[Geof]

Originally Posted by BrendaEM Won't the column bend, letting the table rotate, perhaps in a way that might be unsymmetrical. There might be issues with the ballnuts/leadnuts not wanting to handle the weight, as perhaps the those parts that support the weight of the machine head should be heavier. Perhaps the z-axis movement might not be as precise/repeatable as the other two, without the weight loading on it. Ground fault protectors are our friends. Just playing the devil's advocate.

All good points.

So mount it upside down .