Bob La Londe wrote:

I needed to get a couple jobs done. The screws need to be replaced on the
Taig so I couldn't use its regular flood oil coolant setup until I fix it.
I used my smaller machine, rubbed a little Tap Magic on the work piece and
hit it with a blast of compressed air. When surfacing off the aluminum
work piece with a 1/4" end mill (largest that spindle will hold) it got
pretty
hot, but it worked great when 3D carving with a 1/16 ball mill. I ran
full pressure off my compressor (125 PSI I think) and used a simple ball
valve to
regulate flow somewhat, but I let it flow pretty heavily. So... how much
air do you guys use? Pressure? CFM?

My compressor ran continuously when I was running the mill. I'll be
adding an electric shut off valve to the air line to that cabinet, so my
compressor will shut off when I am done with a cut, but I was thinking if
I could consume less air and get a decent job I would add a flow and
pressure regulator too.
Air blast is probably the worst way to remove chips and cool
things. A really good nozzle can move the chips with less air
flow, but it is still inefficient. A jet of flood coolant takes
very little energy compared to a big air compressor.

Jon