Mini-Mill / Router - Cutting Fluid??

[Davek0974]

Hi all,

I'm building a mini-mill / router for aluminium mainly but also wood and plastics so its a multi-purpose build.

What are the recommendations for cutting fluid on aluminium??

On the Bridgeport while making the parts I'm using WD40 but its messy and not that cheap.

I see I have a few choices -

Manual spray bottle/can
Mist spray nozzle
Flood coolant

As the time taken can be considerable I think manual squirt bottle is out.

I have read about mist but the fogger ones have a bad rep due to breathing the fog, the coarse droplet misters seem better but what do you run in them?

Then there is good old flood, I used to use it on the lathe once but damn that was messy :) Again what sort of fluid is good for fine slotting and pocketing in aluminium?

I am building the machine with coolant in mind so all choices are possible at this stage, its only a small machine - 350x500mm bed area.

So far i'm leaning to flood coolant but not sure what type or if something else is better, compressed air clears the chips but makes a big mess and does nothing to stop it gumming the flutes up on the tool.

[mekanik]

Paraffin for cutting Ally
Mike

[Davek0974]

Mist or flood??

[mekanik]

better to wait for someone that's running a mill setup to advise here, the guys with the high speed spindles tend to spray but also use air to remove the chips to prevent double cutting and fusion to the cutter.
Someone will be along to advise.
Mike

[JAZZCNC]

Odour less Mist is best for Ali. I just use WD type De watering fluid I sell in my day job which is basicly paraffin type fluid.

Air is the key with Ali you want all chips blasted out of there before they get recut and overheat. Mess is just part of the cutting I'm afraid. The trick is lessening it but you'll have to accept some mess.!

[Davek0974]

I know about the mess, the Bridgeport is dripping in WD at the moment and buried in a pile of chips :) at least it won't rust.

Probably not an issue on the mini-mill but I find the WD smokes a bit when hogging ally on the bridgeport, proves that the cutter is getting hot and that a squirt of WD is not enough, but as i said, that was a 14mm cutter, balls deep, cutting a pocket.

JAZZ, what fluid do you sell (if allowed to mention) and I presume thats the course droplet type of misting system?

Agree with the chip re-cutting, easiest way to bugger a bit is to let the chips pile up in the slot or hole, always when you don't have a spare bit ;)