Cutting fiberglass, what coolant?

[SteveD]

I cut a fair amount of Garolite G-7, G-11, & G-3 bonded fiberglass board. I find the best method is carbide & flood coolant. However, my coolant goes sour after a couple of weeks. I use or have used the Rustlick products Powerchip 2000 & WS 5050. I treat with Triadine 20 to retard bacteria growth & use Zebra odor control tablets but nothing works. Most of my work is in Aluminum so I need to stay with an all-purpose coolant. I only have 1 CNC so i can't designate a machine to a specific function.

Does anyone out there have a solution or use a different coolant?

Any help would be appreciated.

[jjasshipley]

Trim E-206. It's a great all-around coolant, and I've never had odor problems with it.

[ajl6549]

Are you sure you need coolant on fibergless? I've never cut it, but I'd think dry cutting should work

[InspirationTool]

Add an aquarium bubbler to the coolant tank. That inhibits anaerobic bacterias, which is usually the problem.

-Jeff

[JWC]

I dry cut it using carbide tools and I rigged a shop vac up to remove dust and chips while it's cutting.

[ajl6549]

Ask your coolant supplier what they think the prob. is. Maybe they can check it for you.

[sharp-shooter]

I use a cold air gun on one side blowing towards the shop vac on the other.
The cold air leaves no mess, and it helps direct the chips into the shop vac pick-up. The draw back is that it requires about 15 cfm from your compressor.

[dertsap]

any time we run g11 we let the coolant tanks get low and run it ,then drain the tanks and shop vac that crap out of the machine ,it gets thru the system plugging everything , i wouldnt imagine the abrasion is too good for the coolant pump , concidering what cutting it does to a coated carb em


i hate that stuff , it stinks and if cut dry fills the shop full of smoke in no time which stinks ,also makes me itchy , did i meantion it stinks

[NC Cams]

I'd try air jet FIRST because the prime interest is to keep the blade COOL. Besides, some folks have found that when you hit a cutter with water/coolant, you can thermally shock the cutter and essentially ruin it. The air jet/vacuum trick is going to cut down on the gritty mess that inevitably results from cutting G10.

High speed steel cutters use misting for cutter lubrication. The critical thing that is being overlooked is that there is lots of air being blown at the cut point at the same time as the "misted" lubricant.

Yes, the lube helps but the air jet is doing the primary clearing of debris and cooling of the tool.

A 1/16" air jet should be plenty. Yes, you'll use a bunch of shop air but that can be less messy than coolant issues.

BTW, if you think cutting G10 is bad, try cutting laminated epoxy laced carbon graphite.