"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
The pieces finally came together, and I have the complete Dribble
Cooling setup on the Clausing 5914 lathe.

Basically, this is a flood cooling setup with needle valves that allow
one to throttle the flow down to a dribble or even a drop now and then.

I gave up on lock-line as it is too large and too hard to adjust, and
went to 0.125" diameter soft copper tubing. Actually, the tubing is
cheaper than lock line: 50' for $25 at the local plumbing supply house.

The setup consists of a cheap 3-gallon coolant pump, some 3/8" vinyl
tubing going to a manifold bolted to a magnetic base stuck to the lathe
carriage. The manifold has a small ball valve that turns flow on and
off, and two needle valves with 1/8" copper tubing applicator tubes
about 15" long. Only one needle valve and tube is in current use.

One bends the tube so it ends just above the workpiece and is aligned
with the cutting bit, and adjusts the needle valve to drip coolant onto
the spinning workpiece.

I tested this by doing some cutoffs of 14L12 steel 1.5" diameter rod,
using a BXA-7 cutoff tool (0.125" wide HSS blade, normal rotation) and a
reversed Dorian 7-71 holder with 2mm wide inserts in a SGIH 26-2 blade
(reverse rotation), both manually fed. Both worked smoothly, and in
silence, at about 500 rpm. No drama at all.

The coolant is Rustlick WS-5050 soluble oil in water, 15:1 dilution.

I think that the cutoff process was helped by the extra coolant on
target. While total coolant usage was a bit higher than with the
mister, far more of the coolant ended up on target. Said another way,
with the mister the cutting point may have been starved of coolant.

And I didn't need to wear the respirator. No mist. No wifely
complaints about the drifting fog or smell either.

This may be a keeper, and it cost far less than the fancy mist coolant
systems. I will probably have to make and install a chip tray drain, as
I creep towards full flood coolant.

For small-tipped tools, I wonder if reducing the 1/8 copper to a needle-type
nozzle (which I think I've seen with 1/8 npt ends) for a very fine stream so
that the coolant can be delivered at nearly the exact rate that it is
"consumed" would be feasible -- depending on the tool/cutting area.

Drops are OK, but a continuous true micro-stream would probably serve the
cause optimally.

--

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Joe Gwinn