Dry Aluminium Cutting Problem

[Jonathan]

but I know it will be messy.

It is.

Could I ask people to post up or link details of their coolant set-ups to give me inspiration?

I don't think you'll find many people on this forum use flood coolant. My setup is merely a pond pump in a bucket, connected with some 16mm hose to the Z-axis upon which I've clamped a coolant hose to the spindle. There's a picture in my build log.

You might find that mist coolant would be enough to reduce the heat build up since although it clearly wont conduct much heat away, the coefficient of friction between the cutter and the material is reduced so less heat is produced to start with. Did you use any lubricant at all when cutting the part pictured?

[birchy]

Aluminium is a bitch for clogging up tools. Plenty of cutting oil and/or coolant is the only way to reduce it.