MicroDrop or Flood Cooling

[wildcat]

On a Industrial Hobbies CNC milling machine seeing light use on mostly aluminum and some steel would you suggest a Trico MicroDrop type system or flood cooling? I have read so many stories that make flood cooling sound nasty (nasty cleanup, nasty smelling, nasty rusting, nasty). The stories and the trouble of making an enclosure led me to the Trico. The Trico would be simple to install and could be moved from mill to lathe to saw and uses env friendly fluids. I just wonder how much is really being given up in terms of milling capacity by only using 1oz of fluid/8hrs. Anyone have experience with both?

Thanks.

[HuFlungDung]

It is hard to beat flood cooling for drilling large holes with HSS and insert drills. It is also almost imperative when working 304 or 316 stainless, because the heat concentrates in the cutting zone, and this burns the tools.

But in aluminum, I have had really good luck with a Trico unit. It provides enough air to move the chips (not a wild blast) and enough lube to keep your tools from loading up.

For cutting steel with carbide, the Trico unit is also good. The extra heat may cause a bit of smoke, but that would be objectionable mostly during heavy cutting. You would want to ventilate the smoke. Using the Trico with HSS on steel is a bit more restrictive, because it does not provide high density cooling. However as you indicated light cutting and such, it should be fine.

I highly recommend the Trico unit. Even having flood cooling available on my Haas, I still use the Trico when I don't want a big mess of wet chips, and I prefer to not soak my 4th axis rotary nor my speeder as well, so I use the Trico unit under those circumstances.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

I used a unit similar to the Trico Micro Drop on a portable milling machine. We cut T-slots in press steel platens for 3/4" bolts while in the presses. Lots of air with very little of the biodegradable coolant/lubricant. Used less than 1 cup to cut 200" of "T"-slot from blank steel. It did irritate my eyes and throat slightly, but very easy cleanup. Air does blow chips around when you use it to air flush the slots while running the cutter. BTW it works for drilling including thru the tool also.

[Willbird]

I was thinking the other day that it would be cool to have an add on for mach to make a dose pump work for micro-drop type dispensing. They sure are nice units, but they sure are expensive.

Bill

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Willbird, Google www.unist.com If they still make them, they are great. The incremental shot and the timing increment are both adjustable. I used one for T slot milling and also for thru the spindle/tool drilling.

[wildcat]

How well do the Trico units work in with wild temperature swing? I am just wondering what happens as the lube warms. Does more lube start to come out than expected? Also, do the drops come out in a uniform spray or are they more of blobs?

[Willbird]

The trico I have used use a dose pump to pump out the honey like cutitng fluid, I would think temp would not effect the amount that was dispensed, they also have a thin tube INSIDE the loc line, this thin tube carries the cutting fluid out to near the nozzle so that most of the loc line is just dry air, and the drops of cutting fluid go right on the tool not down the inside of the locline

Bill

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

If the Trico unit works the same as the Unist, the pump is a positive displacement pump that has an adjustable volume per pulse and the pulse interval time is also adjustable. These units inject the coolant into the moving compressed air stream where the pulses are modulated into a near constant "almost dry" flow. When we set ours up, it barely made a dark "wetting" spot on a piece of white paper. No mess from coolant but we had the air flow/pressure fairly high thus chips went where the air carried them.

[Willbird]

The unist does not seem to have the small cappilary tube to carry the oil down to close to the nozzle ??


Bill

[wildcat]

Anyone have a favorite place for getting one of these units and the lube? I had placed an otder with JTS but the canceled my order and said prices had gone up $100 over those listed on their website.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

The Unist literature "that I still have after 10 yrs." shows the liquid kept seperate from the air till they are combined "at the nozzle". However, the loc line is added after the "nozzle". The loc line continues after the nozzle for only about 4-6". I worked with Trico's sales guy to help in the development of a thru the tool air pressurized system. He later sold the Unist system to us so I'm more familiar with Unist even though the Trico system is made less than 7 miles from this computer. I have not used the Trico micro-drop system, only the Unist, but the Unist system definetly worked fine.

[fatboy55]

I have an IH mill and just put an iv drip on it today. Very nice for alum and super cheap. I use about 1/4 cup a day, running all day, of cutting fluid. Its just a coke bottle, a few plastic hoses and a small piece of hypodermic tubing from a flux bottle

http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?...5Fid=21%2D7904

this is close to the hypodermic tubing I used. Just the neadle tip connected to the hose being fed by the coke bottle. Just gravity and a c clamp to regulate it down to a drop ever second or two. I got the bottle at the local electronics supply for 2 bucks.

I have it set up so as the drop becomes larger it hits the top side of the end mill where it goes into the collet. The fluid quickly makes it way down to the bottom of the cut. The bottom, side walls and the tool itself have a very nice thin layer of the cutting fluid and the drip can be adjusted easily with the clamp.

Total cost under 10 bucks.

Jeff