Advice on tool cooling

[JohnHaine]

The trouble is that you need some lube to stop the chips welding on the tool but that makes the chips into a slurry that won't blow away unless you have a lot of air and that blows some of the chips all over the place! I don't have a good solution to this unless you use flood cooling. With some grades of Ali the chips don't stick if the tool runs fast and you can easily blow the chips away. By the way the edge of the tool needs to get hot, the need is not to cool it but stop the dwarf welding on.

[cropwell]

Hi Carl,

Have a look at eBay, the pond air pumps by Hailea pumping 140 litres per min at low pressure for about £50. I use an 80 litre one on my small machine and it is OK. I also have the Lidl airbrush compressor with a blow nozzle. That can clear build ups, but hasn't got that much oomph. You could also use the airbrush from the kit to blow a spray on the work.

It is a quieter solution than a 2hp compressor, but a little on the gentle side, rather than industrial.

I have a small A4 gantry machine and a cheapskate attitude - but the pond pump works for me !

Cheers

Rob

[Jonathan]

The other big advantage of not cutting dry is that coolant or oil lower the coefficient of friction between the tool and material, so less heat is generated to start with. That's partly why even a small amount of 'something wet' can make a big difference.

[Gasgasbones]

Cheers fellas.

I use WD40 on my manual mill but after a while it leaves a sludgy swarfy mess in the T grooves which are a pain to clean. I wanted to avoid this on CNC if poss so hoped air would help.

I have a large compressor but its in shed 2 and shed 1 with the CNC won't fit it in :-)
I'll try a combination of the small air supply and WD40 and see how I get on.

cheers fellas,

carl