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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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#1
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those
machines featured in YouTube videos, but I was able to do some much faster than normal cutting in the last couple days. A lot of times I have to leave the machine running when making an aluminum part while I go off and do other things. I've found mostly I can take off .001 to .003 per pass dry cutting with the smaller cutters at a moderate speed. .125 cutters and bigger I can be a little bit more aggressive, but I can bog down my stepper motors. I made a fishing bait injection mold this last week in my spare time, and since it was just a cavity as soon as the cavity got some depth I filled it up with WD40 and left it to run. Never a single gum up or crash in 8-10 hours of machining. Not great for some of you guys, but awesome for me. While doing a simulation run on one pocket to see how long it would take to run I accidently started a script halfway through. Instead of crashing it just cut. Did a pretty good job, and since it was not trashing the piece I just let it run from there. I could only credit the WD40 I was spraying on the aluminum. Nothing else was different. I finished both plates of my mold and proceeded to cut sprue vents. It's a detailed piece so rather than cut a bunch of individual sprues I cut a long ball milled groove the length of the mold and then cut smaller vents over to the main vent from each major detail. Anyway, for some reason I thought I could cut the main vent in one pass... or I got in a hurry and didn't think. ..125 diameter ball mill .0625 deep in one pass. Ordinarily I would have jammed the cutter almost immediately, but I got nearly an inch before it stuck and the stepper would not push it. Oops. The first part of the cut looked as good as a finish pass. Hmmm... I was using the jog mode to make this cut. I decided to play. This mold is a prototype anyway. I backed up the cutter and looked at the whole work piece and realized that the entire piece was coated in WD-40. I started my cut again and ran it at 20 IPM and just kept hitting it with a burst of WD every half inch. It made a very nice looking finish quality (appearance) cut in one pass. WOW! I moved the table and proceeded to cut my main vent on the other side. Same thing except I played with it a little bit and held off the WD some just to see. Consistently if I stopped spraying it would stop at about one inch of travel. If I kept tapping my spray trigger it just zipped through the work piece. Ordinarily for something like that I would have written a code snippet to take off about .003 per pass and then left it to run. I really need to get back to work on my coolant rig. For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. It does wonders on Aluminum. I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. |
#2
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Fast CNC & WD
Bob La Londe wrote: Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, but I was able to do some much faster than normal cutting in the last couple days. A lot of times I have to leave the machine running when making an aluminum part while I go off and do other things. I've found mostly I can take off .001 to .003 per pass dry cutting with the smaller cutters at a moderate speed. .125 cutters and bigger I can be a little bit more aggressive, but I can bog down my stepper motors. I made a fishing bait injection mold this last week in my spare time, and since it was just a cavity as soon as the cavity got some depth I filled it up with WD40 and left it to run. Never a single gum up or crash in 8-10 hours of machining. Not great for some of you guys, but awesome for me. While doing a simulation run on one pocket to see how long it would take to run I accidently started a script halfway through. Instead of crashing it just cut. Did a pretty good job, and since it was not trashing the piece I just let it run from there. I could only credit the WD40 I was spraying on the aluminum. Nothing else was different. I finished both plates of my mold and proceeded to cut sprue vents. It's a detailed piece so rather than cut a bunch of individual sprues I cut a long ball milled groove the length of the mold and then cut smaller vents over to the main vent from each major detail. Anyway, for some reason I thought I could cut the main vent in one pass... or I got in a hurry and didn't think. .125 diameter ball mill .0625 deep in one pass. Ordinarily I would have jammed the cutter almost immediately, but I got nearly an inch before it stuck and the stepper would not push it. Oops. The first part of the cut looked as good as a finish pass. Hmmm... I was using the jog mode to make this cut. I decided to play. This mold is a prototype anyway. I backed up the cutter and looked at the whole work piece and realized that the entire piece was coated in WD-40. I started my cut again and ran it at 20 IPM and just kept hitting it with a burst of WD every half inch. It made a very nice looking finish quality (appearance) cut in one pass. WOW! I moved the table and proceeded to cut my main vent on the other side. Same thing except I played with it a little bit and held off the WD some just to see. Consistently if I stopped spraying it would stop at about one inch of travel. If I kept tapping my spray trigger it just zipped through the work piece. Ordinarily for something like that I would have written a code snippet to take off about .003 per pass and then left it to run. I really need to get back to work on my coolant rig. For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. It does wonders on Aluminum. I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. I mostly cut dry on my Bridgeport. I find Kroil works well for tapping in aluminum, for tapping in steel I use regular cutting oil. |
#3
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote: For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. It does wonders on Aluminum. I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. I mostly cut dry on my Bridgeport. I find Kroil works well for tapping in aluminum, for tapping in steel I use regular cutting oil. I usually cut dry too , but I've been machining some pieces I recently cast from aluminum scrap (car wheels) and it's pretty gummy . Since I have a case of NAPA penetrating lubricant (thanks son!) I decided to try it ... worlds of difference ! I think almost any light oil/solvent would give the same results - haven't I heard of people using diesel fuel or kero as a cutting fluid ? -- Snag "90 FLHTCU "Strider" '39 WLDD "PopCycle" BS 132/SENS/DOF |
#4
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Bob La Londe wrote:
For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. It does wonders on Aluminum. I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. WD-40 works great with AL. The problem is that it's flammable. Nobody wants their $100k CNC mill to go up in a cloud of flame and smoke. |
#5
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Snag wrote:
Pete C. wrote: Bob La Londe wrote: For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. It does wonders on Aluminum. I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. I mostly cut dry on my Bridgeport. I find Kroil works well for tapping in aluminum, for tapping in steel I use regular cutting oil. I usually cut dry too , but I've been machining some pieces I recently cast from aluminum scrap (car wheels) and it's pretty gummy . Since I have a case of NAPA penetrating lubricant (thanks son!) I decided to try it ... worlds of difference ! I think almost any light oil/solvent would give the same results - haven't I heard of people using diesel fuel or kero as a cutting fluid ? Were the wheels gummy, or did they have a nice heat treat to them? I have heard that there's a world of difference to be made in the machinability of cast aluminum just by proper heat treating. I would assume, however, that (a) you have to start with the right stuff, (b) you have to know what to do. It'd be nice to know how easy it is to start with scrap aluminum that is obviously able to take a heat treat, melt it down, cast it up, and heat treat it. Clearly buying blocks of ready-to-cast alloy is the 'real' way to go, but the notion of buying mowers or broken wheels for a buck a pop and melting them down has lots more appeal. -- Tim Wescott Control system and signal processing consulting www.wescottdesign.com |
#6
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On 4/21/2010 7:48 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:
Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, (...) I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. The active ingredient in WD appears to be Mineral Spirits available in 1 gallon jugs for less than 10 bucks from the big box stores. So less than 8c/oz vs 30c/oz. for WD. I would be very interested in your test results using Mineral Spirits as a cutting fluid for aluminum. Thanks Bob! --Winston -- Gary was a liar, a thief, a scoundrel and a psychologist. He was the most redundant man I ever met. |
#7
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Tim Wescott wrote:
Snag wrote: Pete C. wrote: Bob La Londe wrote: For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. It does wonders on Aluminum. I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. I mostly cut dry on my Bridgeport. I find Kroil works well for tapping in aluminum, for tapping in steel I use regular cutting oil. I usually cut dry too , but I've been machining some pieces I recently cast from aluminum scrap (car wheels) and it's pretty gummy . Since I have a case of NAPA penetrating lubricant (thanks son!) I decided to try it ... worlds of difference ! I think almost any light oil/solvent would give the same results - haven't I heard of people using diesel fuel or kero as a cutting fluid ? Were the wheels gummy, or did they have a nice heat treat to them? I have heard that there's a world of difference to be made in the machinability of cast aluminum just by proper heat treating. I didn't try to machine the wheels ... I would assume, however, that (a) you have to start with the right stuff, (b) you have to know what to do. The alloy of these wheels is unknown , but they were probably an a356 type alloy . They were almost certainly heat treated , just about all aluminum is . The exception is extrusions . Chilling the casting fresh from the sand helps , but without the proper equipment there's small chance that a home shop will successfully heat treat aluminum . It'd be nice to know how easy it is to start with scrap aluminum that is obviously able to take a heat treat, melt it down, cast it up, and heat treat it. Clearly buying blocks of ready-to-cast alloy is the 'real' way to go, but the notion of buying mowers or broken wheels for a buck a pop and melting them down has lots more appeal. -- Tim Wescott Control system and signal processing consulting www.wescottdesign.com I'm kinda choosy about my melts , I try not to mix sources . Every batch of ingots is identified as to source . So far Old Chevy Head is my favorite for post-cast machining . Extrudium is the worst ... But it all cuts better with some lube . -- Snag "90 FLHTCU "Strider" '39 WLDD "PopCycle" BS 132/SENS/DOF |
#8
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Winston wrote:
On 4/21/2010 7:48 AM, Bob La Londe wrote: Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, (...) I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. The active ingredient in WD appears to be Mineral Spirits available in 1 gallon jugs for less than 10 bucks from the big box stores. So less than 8c/oz vs 30c/oz. for WD. I would be very interested in your test results using Mineral Spirits as a cutting fluid for aluminum. Kerosene will work equally well. -- John R. Carroll |
#9
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
"John R. Carroll" wrote in message ... Winston wrote: On 4/21/2010 7:48 AM, Bob La Londe wrote: Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, (...) I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. The active ingredient in WD appears to be Mineral Spirits available in 1 gallon jugs for less than 10 bucks from the big box stores. So less than 8c/oz vs 30c/oz. for WD. I would be very interested in your test results using Mineral Spirits as a cutting fluid for aluminum. Kerosene will work equally well. -- John R. Carroll John, I think I remember you're a pro machinist from AMC. I used to lurk there till the OT made it useless. Anyway, I use toilet water (water and 6% soluble oil) on AL - flood on the CHNC lathe and heavy zero fog mist on the mill. I used to use oil in the CHNC but didn't like the mess in the shop. Just curious, does anybody use kerosene in machines like this? It would slowly evaporate and not leave an oil film on everything. Karl |
#10
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Karl Townsend wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote in message ... Winston wrote: On 4/21/2010 7:48 AM, Bob La Londe wrote: Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, (...) I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. The active ingredient in WD appears to be Mineral Spirits available in 1 gallon jugs for less than 10 bucks from the big box stores. So less than 8c/oz vs 30c/oz. for WD. I would be very interested in your test results using Mineral Spirits as a cutting fluid for aluminum. Kerosene will work equally well. John, I think I remember you're a pro machinist from AMC. I used to lurk there till the OT made it useless. Anyway, I use toilet water (water and 6% soluble oil) on AL - flood on the CHNC lathe and heavy zero fog mist on the mill. I used to use oil in the CHNC but didn't like the mess in the shop. Just curious, does anybody use kerosene in machines like this? It would slowly evaporate and not leave an oil film on everything. Vegetable oil or, if you can get it, real cutting oil. http://www.blaser.com/index.cfm?type=land See Vascomill 22. It's one of the premium cutting oils for milling machines these days. You can't really convert a machine from soluble to oil, however. Not without some major contortions. Even then, a big milling machine will take a couple hundred gallons and VM22 is expensive, about $20.00 per gallon. You would want to clean it and dry everything our disassembled just to get started. Wes could probably tell you what they use on his job. -- John R. Carroll |
#11
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:27:22 -0500, "Pete C."
wrote: snip I mostly cut dry on my Bridgeport. I find Kroil works well for tapping in aluminum, for tapping in steel I use regular cutting oil. Never thought of using Kroil as a _lube_ Thanks for the idea! rgentry at oz dot net |
#12
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On Apr 21, 10:48*am, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
Ok... *my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, but I was able to do some much faster than normal cutting in the last couple days. *A lot of times I have to leave the machine running when making an aluminum part while I go off and do other things. *I've found mostly I can take off .001 to .003 per pass dry cutting with the smaller cutters at a moderate speed. *.125 cutters and bigger I can be a little bit more aggressive, but I can bog down my stepper motors. *I made a fishing bait injection mold this last week in my spare time, and since it was just a cavity as soon as the cavity got some depth I filled it up with WD40 and left it to run. *Never a single gum up or crash in 8-10 hours of machining. *Not great for some of you guys, but awesome for me.. While doing a simulation run on one pocket to see how long it would take to run I accidently started a script halfway through. *Instead of crashing it just cut. *Did a pretty good job, and since it was not trashing the piece I just let it run from there. *I could only credit the WD40 I was spraying on the aluminum. *Nothing else was different. I finished both plates of my mold and proceeded to cut sprue vents. *It's a detailed piece so rather than cut a bunch of individual sprues I cut a long ball milled groove the length of the mold and then cut smaller vents over to the main vent from each major detail. *Anyway, for some reason I thought I could cut the main vent in one pass... or I got in a hurry and didn't think. .125 diameter ball mill .0625 deep in one pass. *Ordinarily I would have jammed the cutter almost immediately, but I got nearly an inch before it stuck and the stepper would not push it. *Oops. *The first part of the cut looked as good as a finish pass. *Hmmm... I was using the jog mode to make this cut. I decided to play. *This mold is a prototype anyway. *I backed up the cutter and looked at the whole work piece and realized that the entire piece was coated in WD-40. *I started my cut again and ran it at 20 IPM and just kept hitting it with a burst of WD every half inch. *It made a very nice looking finish quality (appearance) cut in one pass. *WOW! *I moved the table and proceeded to cut my main vent on the other side. *Same thing except I played with it a little bit and held off the WD some just to see. *Consistently if I stopped spraying it would stop at about one inch of travel. *If I kept tapping my spray trigger it just zipped through the work piece. *Ordinarily for something like that I would have written a code snippet to take off about .003 per pass and then left it to run. I really need to get back to work on my coolant rig. For those who deride WD as a coolant / lubricant. *It does wonders on Aluminum. *I know and have seen that I get faster results with the WD, but some of my projects have cut times so long I can't stand there and spray regardless. *I just had never realized HOW MUCH difference it makes. *I am talking an order of magnitude difference. *We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%.. Not the strangest lube... I forget what its used on, but the hot-ticket for lubing some type of metal was carbon-tet... tapping aluminum? Milk is another good one for some op on some metal (memory not good before the coffee does its work...) Dave |
#13
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On 4/21/2010 1:16 PM, John R. Carroll wrote:
Winston wrote: On 4/21/2010 7:48 AM, Bob La Londe wrote: Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, (...) I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. The active ingredient in WD appears to be Mineral Spirits available in 1 gallon jugs for less than 10 bucks from the big box stores. So less than 8c/oz vs 30c/oz. for WD. I would be very interested in your test results using Mineral Spirits as a cutting fluid for aluminum. Kerosene will work equally well. Does that mean I could use diesel fuel at $3.40 a gallon (or less than 3c per oz.)? --Winston -- Gary was a liar, a thief, a scoundrel and a psychologist. He was the most redundant man I ever met. |
#14
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Winston wrote:
On 4/21/2010 1:16 PM, John R. Carroll wrote: Winston wrote: On 4/21/2010 7:48 AM, Bob La Londe wrote: Ok... my little toy mill is never going to scream like some of those machines featured in YouTube videos, (...) I am talking an order of magnitude difference. We aren't talking a 20-50% improvement in efficiency, but in this particular experiment nearly 2000%. The active ingredient in WD appears to be Mineral Spirits available in 1 gallon jugs for less than 10 bucks from the big box stores. So less than 8c/oz vs 30c/oz. for WD. I would be very interested in your test results using Mineral Spirits as a cutting fluid for aluminum. Kerosene will work equally well. Does that mean I could use diesel fuel at $3.40 a gallon (or less than 3c per oz.)? Yes, it does. The smell is awful because of the volatile's however and there is "stuff" in fuels that can be problematic in the long run. What you can't do is use this stuff either pumped or misted. Brushing it on or squirting it from a bottle is fine. You will be making a bomb if you create a mist cloud in your garage. Sinker EDM machines used to use Dielectric Kerosine. -- John R. Carroll |
#15
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On 4/22/2010 7:59 AM, John R. Carroll wrote:
Winston wrote: (Cheap substitutes for WD-40 as a cutting oil for aluminum) Does that mean I could use diesel fuel at $3.40 a gallon (or less than 3c per oz.)? Yes, it does. The smell is awful because of the volatile's however and there is "stuff" in fuels that can be problematic in the long run. I had no idea there were so many. Wow! http://www.epa.gov/oms/regs/fuels/additive/web-gas.htm What you can't do is use this stuff either pumped or misted. Brushing it on or squirting it from a bottle is fine. You will be making a bomb if you create a mist cloud in your garage. I shall try deodorized kero in a squirt bottle next time I am sawing aluminum. Thanks! --Winston -- Gary was a liar, a thief, a scoundrel and a psychologist. He was the most redundant man I ever met. |
#16
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Winston wrote:
On 4/22/2010 7:59 AM, John R. Carroll wrote: Winston wrote: (Cheap substitutes for WD-40 as a cutting oil for aluminum) Does that mean I could use diesel fuel at $3.40 a gallon (or less than 3c per oz.)? Yes, it does. The smell is awful because of the volatile's however and there is "stuff" in fuels that can be problematic in the long run. I had no idea there were so many. Wow! http://www.epa.gov/oms/regs/fuels/additive/web-gas.htm What you can't do is use this stuff either pumped or misted. Brushing it on or squirting it from a bottle is fine. You will be making a bomb if you create a mist cloud in your garage. I shall try deodorized kero in a squirt bottle next time I am sawing aluminum. Oil will work better with a saw because it stays with the blade better. Sulferized cutting oil is the best, lard based is pretty good and even plain motor oil works pretty well. -- John R. Carroll |
#17
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On 4/22/2010 8:31 AM, John R. Carroll wrote:
Winston wrote: On 4/22/2010 7:59 AM, John R. Carroll wrote: Winston wrote: (Cheap substitutes for WD-40 as a cutting oil for aluminum) Does that mean I could use diesel fuel at $3.40 a gallon (or less than 3c per oz.)? Yes, it does. The smell is awful because of the volatile's however and there is "stuff" in fuels that can be problematic in the long run. I had no idea there were so many. Wow! http://www.epa.gov/oms/regs/fuels/additive/web-gas.htm What you can't do is use this stuff either pumped or misted. Brushing it on or squirting it from a bottle is fine. You will be making a bomb if you create a mist cloud in your garage. I shall try deodorized kero in a squirt bottle next time I am sawing aluminum. Oil will work better with a saw because it stays with the blade better. Sulferized cutting oil is the best, lard based is pretty good and even plain motor oil works pretty well. Cool! Thanks! --Winston -- Gary was a liar, a thief, a scoundrel and a psychologist. He was the most redundant man I ever met. |
#18
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
Karl Townsend wrote:
John, I think I remember you're a pro machinist from AMC. I used to lurk there till the OT made it useless. Anyway, I use toilet water (water and 6% soluble oil) on AL - flood on the CHNC lathe and heavy zero fog mist on the mill. I used to use oil in the CHNC but didn't like the mess in the shop. Just curious, does anybody use kerosene in machines like this? It would slowly evaporate and not leave an oil film on everything. You mean like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRg2f_gwkQE |
#19
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
On Apr 22, 1:15*pm, Jim Stewart wrote:
Karl Townsend wrote: John, I think I remember you're a pro machinist from AMC. I used to lurk there till the OT made it useless. Anyway, I use toilet water (water and 6% soluble oil) on AL - flood on the CHNC lathe and heavy zero fog mist on the mill. *I used to use oil in the CHNC but didn't like the mess in the shop. Just curious, does anybody use kerosene in machines like this? It would slowly evaporate and not leave an oil film on everything. You mean like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRg2f_gwkQE They're lucky the pretty white vaporized kero after the first flash didn't ignite. Dave |
#20
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Fast CNC & WD
"Dave__67" wrote in message ... On Apr 22, 1:15 pm, Jim Stewart wrote: Karl Townsend wrote: John, I think I remember you're a pro machinist from AMC. I used to lurk there till the OT made it useless. Anyway, I use toilet water (water and 6% soluble oil) on AL - flood on the CHNC lathe and heavy zero fog mist on the mill. I used to use oil in the CHNC but didn't like the mess in the shop. Just curious, does anybody use kerosene in machines like this? It would slowly evaporate and not leave an oil film on everything. You mean like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRg2f_gwkQE They're lucky the pretty white vaporized kero after the first flash didn't ignite. Dave FWIW, and in general terms, lubricants for machining aluminum are used mostly to improve surface finish. A rigid machine with any horsepower at all doesn't need the lubrication for the purpose of reducing cutting forces -- although a small or light machine may. And using a flood of miscible oil, while a common thing, is done more for chip control than for cooling. It can improve finish, especially when you're using low- or zero-rake carbides. The really old, traditional cutting fluid for aluminum is kerosene, although it was typically brushed on or dripped, not flooded. It does make a mess but, again, it can improve surface finish. I use lard oil when I need a good finish, on my 65-year-old South Bend 10L. Like most old toolroom and small-shop operations used to do, I brush it on. I also have a homemade drip can, but I seldom feel the need to use it. More often, I machine it dry with HSS cutters. -- Ed Huntress |
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