Life Without Flood Coolant

[BobWarfield]

I just put out an article on dry machining on CNC Cookbook for those who are interested:

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCDryMachining.html

I know a lot of folks here do not have flood coolant. It's surprising just how well you can do without it, but you do have to offset the loss of flood with some techniques to cover your bases.

It's too long to put in a forum, else I'd just have copied it over.

Cheers,

BW

[Fastest1]

Bob, I just read most of the article. Thanks. On the other hand I think I had read you went to Rice here in Houston. How much time did you spend at Valhalla's?

[BobWarfield]

Valhalla, LOL.

More time at Willy's and the surrounding West U establishments. What a great scene. Marfreless, La Columb d'Or, etc. No end of places to enjoy a nice drink.

Cheers,

BW

[5axisguy]

I do all my hardmilling, and any milling for that matter, with Acculube air oil mist, the only thing I ever use coolant for is washing the chips out of the machine.

[Fastest1]

Yep know all of those places. Was raised in and around West U, back when it was blue collar and the Village was dead (parents bought a corner lot & house in Southside Place for $24,000.00). Used to drink underage in Valhalla's, Shiners for .25! Never attended classes there. Couldnt understand what the girls were talking about and they werent supermodels (mid 70's). Anyway still live in the Heights. Love your work. Btw when are you going to free those inner boxes of your Turner's Cube? That avatar should be representative of your work. Maybe like Marcel's? Maybe he could lend you one to take a picture of

Valhalla, LOL.

More time at Willy's and the surrounding West U establishments. What a great scene. Marfreless, La Columb d'Or, etc. No end of places to enjoy a nice drink.

Cheers,

BW

[Fastest1]

Mom still owns that house. Doesnt want to sell it due to the capital gains! What a problem to have huh? The buyer would bulldoze it the next day. Only 2400sf

[BobWarfield]

Love your work. Btw when are you going to free those inner boxes of your Turner's Cube? That avatar should be representative of your work. Maybe like Marcel's? Maybe he could lend you one to take a picture of

Not hard to free the inner boxes. My problem is my pathetic little rectilinear engineer's mind actually prefers the order and symmetry of leaving them where they are.

Cheers,

BW

[Boots]

The problem with machining without coolent is heat. You will be hard pressed to produce good parts while they are hot or warm, because when they cool you will be too small and have made junk.

Like the saying goes, " Sure looks nice. How do they check?"

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

If your parts get hot, you're going too slow LOL

We dry hobbed gears @ 850 sfpm and were cool to the touch. Chips were basically dust, looked like dry grinding grit. Lotsa sparks!!!! Vacuum cleaner for chip removal.

Dick Z

[BobWarfield]

Boots, Dick Z has it. You want to get your feeds and speeds right so most of the heat goes out in the chips. High speed machining strategies ensure the part and tool get "cooling time" by managing cutter engagement and relying on chip thinning to allow high enough feedrates to keep the MRR's up.

A little mist will also help by lubricating the part so less heat is generated in the first place.

But in the end, if you want to complete eliminate the heat difference between coolant and dry machining, see the article's thoughts on using a Vortex Tube.

Cheers,

BW

[jamesu229]

I agree completely. With the right speeds feeds and cutters almost all heat can be kept out of the part. Proof of this is on youtube under "high speed machining(really high). .625 endmill 10000 rpm 800 ipm and a part that is cool to the touch after almost 3 minutes of this. also no mist sprayer or air gun.

[MrWild]

I thought I saw an Excell spread sheet program that gave diameters and cut depth for toothed belt pulleys on your sight. At the time it had an under $15 cost but I was too cheap to uy it (then). Was that you, and if so, do you still offer it? I looked through your site and didn't see it.