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Saw a guy at the Rockford trade show run a 3/4 end mill with no coolant and it clicked
Was at the Rockford tool show two weeks back and this older guy at a booth was doing a demo on a little benchtop mill. He was cutting 6061 dry with a 3/4 inch 3 flute and I almost walked past because I figured he was just showing off. Then I noticed his chips were flying off silver and clean, no built up edge at all, and he was running around 12k rpm. Started talking to him and he says most guys drown aluminum in coolant when what they really need is air blast and a way higher feed. He pulled up a quick chart on his phone and his feed was almost double what I run at the shop. Brought that idea back and tried it on a job cutting some brackets last Thursday, air blast only, feed cranked up, and the finish was way better than what I was getting with flood coolant. Ran the whole 40 part run without stopping to clear chips once. Curious if any of you have gone to air blast on your aluminum cuts or if that is just a small machine thing.
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calebm469d ago
Air blast is where it's at for aluminum, the coolant just keeps chips from clearing and you end up recutting them. Crank the feed and let the air do the work. Small machine or not, the physics dont change.
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