"Ecnerwal" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

One thing that we hobbyists often forget is that machine tools used in
production today are mostly fully enclosed.

Of course, with a fully enclosed (and CNC) tool, might as well use flood
coolant rather than a mist...

Not necessarily. Most of today's advanced cutters, with multiple coatings of
ceramic materials (titanium nitride, titanium carbide, titanium
carbo-nitride, aluminum oxide, etc., etc.) can't tolerate thermal shock. So
they're often run dry, at speeds that produce red-hot chips. Or, if
necessary, some can be run with mist coolant. The coatings with aluminum
oxide won't work properly unless the AlOx is hot enough to vaporize, so they
don't cool them at all.

But running flood coolant, particularly in milling operations, will crack
the coatings all to hell.


Still using a can of oil and a brush, given my unenclosed manual tools.
Might consider cooling with compressed air, if I get a better compressor.

You probably don't need cooling at all, unless you're running your tools at
maximum speeds. What you and I need is lubrication, not cooling.

--
Ed Huntress