Milling Slots - Noob question

[GaryWilliams]

Hi Nick & sinnsvak,

Thanks for the advice. I found a post where one guy used a 70 litre/min air pump with a flexable pipe and brass nozzle. He also found this to cool the work sufficiently on its' own. So, I've just ordered a similar pump and the mister from eBay.

This weekend I am going to build a complete enclosure for the 6040 with a pipe to fit to my dust extractor (a built in vacuum cleaner). That way, when I mill MDF, all the dust remains contained. That should solve all the environment issues :)

I think I may have damaged my new sorotec end mill by not clearing the chips well enough last time I used it. The cutting edge looks a bit 'nicked'. As for the slots, no, 6mm is not essential. As I have a 6mm end mill I planned on simply running the tool back and forth as a series of rows to create the slots. When all this is sorted, I'll go back to milling out that 40mm thick block of aluminium.

Good point about sucking out the chips. I'll stick with your solution to blow the chips away then hoover out the chips after the job is finished. As for using alchohol for extra cooling which then evaporates, brilliant idea!

Cheers

Gary

[dstivens]

I use a 140 litre/min air pump made for ponds and a 1/4 locline kit with i think a 3mm nozzle. its works pretty well and load quieter then having my compressor running all the time.