Quote Originally Posted by m_c View Post
For coolant, unless you can get good flood coolant, the next best option is air with a bit lubricant.

The key thing with nearly all machining, is to get chips away from the cutter. Getting chips away is even more critical with aluminium, as it can be very prone to chips welding to the cutter, which is never good and often fatal for the part, cutter of both.

I managed for a good few months machining aluminium with just WD40 and compressed air. I'd set the machine running, spray a bit WD40 on, hit cycle start, then wander back every couple minutes and blow chips of the part, and a little bit extra WD40 if it looked like things were getting too dry. I only used enough WD40 to give a light coating on the part/cutter to help stop chips sticking. If I knew there was a critical cut coming up I.e. spiral in, or deep slot, I'd stay and hold the air on the cutter to ensure no chips built up, and add in a bit extra WD40.
The WD40 does make the chips clump together more and a bit harder to blow away, but the trade off was they were less likely to weld to things.

I eventually made a mister, which removed the need for as much babysitting, but it would still need a bit extra assistance in deeper parts.
My current system is one of those cheap bendy hoses with air and "mist".
I have pretty decent air going through it with a tiny amount of regular water and have not had any chip welds.

Probably could do with some sort of coolant fluid or additive in the water though to assist.



Quote Originally Posted by Chaz View Post
Please also send me the fixed files (ie Step or Iges from Fusion or the raw F3D) so that I can look at how long it will take the machine these. Can give my 2p worth as well. Free to use / not use the info.

Ill leave this public for now, will take down at a later date http://a360.co/2zPSUYP

Thanks