Dry Cut. Phbbt!!!

I've been dry cutting aluminum for a while. I have proved to my own
satisfaction that WD-40 as a spot lubricant/coolant make for a superior
cut to dry hands down. I have been accumulating bits of hardware for
flood lubrication for a while, and a couple days ago I started putting
things together.

Before implementing I put a drain in my cabinet and posted on here for
some abuse. LOL. I probably should have said lubricant rather than
coolant. For whatever reason it works.

WD is out for the flammability reason I mentioned before, but I did some
side by side tests. I set up a used 1/4 ball mill to do some peck drill
mops and some slotting, and I ran the MOPs dry. The slot was ok, but
with some galling. The peck drill holes were ok, but had a compression
ridge. With a brand new ball mill I knew those mops would have cut ok,
so I figured that was a good baseline.

Then I picked up the much hated can of WD and ran the same mops again
with the same ball mill giving them anywhere from one shot every couple
seconds to continuous stream. Any amount of WD improved the cut, and a
continuous stream was pretty good. Then I picked up an oil can and did
the test again with transmission fluid. With a continuous stream of
tranny fluid the cuts were mirror smooth with no ridges and no burrs.
Zero cleanup would be needed. Even with my little pocket microscope the
cuts looked not much worse the edge of the cutter itself. Wow!

Today I setup my little tank and pump below the drain, plugged the pump
into my relay switched outlet, and converted the manifold I made the
other day for air to use with my lubricant system. I just finished
cutting a mold plate (about 5 hours total) with cutters that were about
to go into my recycled carbide bottle, and it looks better than its mate
that I cut dry with brand new cutters.

So, the answer is yes. You can dry cut aluminum and get a passable
result. Air helps minimally in just blowing the chips clear, but at
feed/speed of 30K and 30-40 IPM you still get some chip welding and
galling unless you are using a brand new cutter. WD-40 is a decent spot
lubricant for aluminum, but flammable and Dexron III is better and
nowhere near as flammable.

Water soluble stuff may be better yet, but 5 gallons of Dexron III is
44.99 at O'Reilly's (special order) or 55.99 at Autozone in stock.

I had some technical issue in final implementation. At a little over 3
gallons my cabinet, tank, and pump flow continuously and drained back to
the tank at a rate that flows well. Unfortunately, when the system
stops it only holds about 2.5 gallons in the enclosure pan and the pump
tank. Oops. I improved flow and managed to run continuously with a
little over 2 gallons by bending up the base pan for the enclosure, and
putting some blocks under one edge. I can see that a new enclosure base
pan is in my near future projects. Something prebent towards the drain.

I see a good cheap solution stop gap though. Get rid of the tank that
came with my little pump and set it on a frame in a 6.5 gallon parts
washer tank, and just dump a full bucket of trany fluid in it. The
pump in most of those cheap parts washers often require a smack with a
hammer to start, or I would just use the pump they come with. My system
is setup to automatically turn on the pump and spindle and turn them off
at the end of the job. No hammer starting wanted.

I can see that I need to do some better design planning also for my next
enclosure. Just make the bottom flat where the machine bolts through
the bench, and bend all the rest towards a drain.

Wow! I have to say I have new process glow right now. The work piece
looks better than anything else I have ever cut without standing there
babying it with the WD can. I just set it to run the group of MOPs for
each cutter and went in the office to do paperwork, order parts, etc.
Ok, I watched it on the camera like a hawk, and tweaked some minor flow
issues, but wow!.