I am currently setting up a machine to drill holes in polished 304
stainless tube. This machine will make about 100,000 holes per year
through one side of 3/4" by .060" tubing. To ensure long tooling life, I
need to cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative
stainless (so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am
looking for a coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts
before they are assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.

Thanks in advance
Greg Postma

Chilled air?
--
Fred R
________________
Drop TROU to email.

Greg Postma wrote:
I am currently setting up a machine to drill holes in polished 304
stainless tube. This machine will make about 100,000 holes per year
through one side of 3/4" by .060" tubing. To ensure long tooling life, I
need to cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative
stainless (so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am
looking for a coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts
before they are assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.

Thanks in advance
Greg Postma

IMO, chilled air would not be as good as a liquid coolant / lubricant
because there would be no lubricaation for the flow of chips away from the
drill.

Bob Swinney

"spam wrote in message
.. .
Chilled air?
--
Fred R
________________
Drop TROU to email.

Greg Postma wrote:
I am currently setting up a machine to drill holes in polished 304
stainless tube. This machine will make about 100,000 holes per year
through one side of 3/4" by .060" tubing. To ensure long tooling life, I
need to cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative
stainless (so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am
looking for a coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts before
they are assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.

Thanks in advance
Greg Postma

Maybe, but there can be LOTS of chilled air. I was keying on the 'easy
to remove' aspect. Effort = 0.
--
Fred R
________________
Drop TROU to email.


Robert Swinney wrote:
IMO, chilled air would not be as good as a liquid coolant / lubricant
because there would be no lubricaation for the flow of chips away from the
drill.

Bob Swinney

Greg Postma wrote:

I am currently setting up a machine to drill holes in polished 304
stainless tube. This machine will make about 100,000 holes per year
through one side of 3/4" by .060" tubing. To ensure long tooling life, I
need to cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative
stainless (so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am
looking for a coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts
before they are assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.

Thanks in advance
Greg Postma

Greg,

Here is a good synthetic coolant to consider. It uses
Triethanolamine and is generally non-toxic, non-flamable, etc. You
can rinse the parts with POTW... plain old tap water.

"The Cooler" by Spartan chemical. (I use this)
MSDS:
http://www.spartanchemical.com/sfa/M...d?OpenDocument
If you spill it, MSDS say wash it down the drain.

I believe "ValCool" by Valenite is a similar product.

--
Jim

Sulferized oil works best for 304 stainless .Dark thread cutting oil
is the same stuff.

Greg Postma wrote in
:


need to cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative
stainless (so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am
looking for a coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts
before they are assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.


Contact your local Castrol representative. I am sure they have a specific
formula for stainless.

For coolant pumps, there are a bunch of them, Brinkmann is the best of
the bunch, but not cheap.

--
Anthony

You can't 'idiot proof' anything....every time you try, they just make
better idiots.

Remove sp to reply via email

Watch your coolant concentration. If the water evaporates out coolant
can get thick and gummy.

Tom

"tim" wrote:

Sulferized oil works best for 304 stainless .Dark thread cutting oil
is the same stuff.

Oil is toxic and so is the solvent to clean the oil off the parts.
You need to dispose of such toxic waste properly but it can still come
back to haunt you. I'd much rather use something that gives a good
result but can merely be dumped down a drain. Have you even tried any
of the non-toxic coolants I mentioned?

--
Jim

Not a 'spert, but...

Has anyone tried plain water as a coolant/cutting agent?
In this case, given no real drilling depth (.060 wall) or heavy chip load,
water might be able to do it, de facto solving the cleanup problem.

I know--well, I *think* I know--that when grinding some SS dowel pins on a
belt sander, dipping the pins in water seemed to *greatly* increase material
removal.

Have you thought about taking delivery of the tubing unpolished, and having
it polished after the holes are drilled? Then, polishing might act to
deburr as well.
And you could then focus on the best-performing coolant.

And what about deburring, if drilling the polished mat'l?

In this case, the pump would not seem to be critical, as volume, not
pressure, is more of an issue, and not much of one at that if the holes are
small. A little Giant centrifugal submersible?? $50??

Triethanolamine as cutting fluid?? wow.....
What about the std soluble oils?
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Greg Postma" wrote in message
...
I am currently setting up a machine to drill holes in polished 304
stainless tube. This machine will make about 100,000 holes per year through
one side of 3/4" by .060" tubing. To ensure long tooling life, I need to
cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative stainless
(so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am looking for a
coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts before they are
assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.

Thanks in advance
Greg Postma