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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: machinist@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [machinist] Flood or Mist Coolant
  • Date: Fri, 31 May 2013 16:03:08 -0400

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/flood-mist-coolant-266560/





Results 1 to 9 of 9
  1. #1
    sbh10 is offline Plastic
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    Default Flood or Mist Coolant

    Machining with manual machines, which is the preferred coolant among members here? I don't see a lot of flood coolants and only occasionally mist coolant.
    Seems most just brush or drip on some cutting oil or their coolant of choice. I guess they all cool and lubricate but which is preferred. I'm talking manual machines.
    Was in an old machinist shop today and he was using Kool Mist and says that's all he uses, lathe, mill, drill, tap, bore. He's happy with it and I'll admit he produced
    beautiful finishes. What do you think of Kool Mist?
  2. #2
    dgfoster's Avatar
    dgfoster is offline Hot Rolled
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    Default

    I use mist on my manual machines if I need cooling when turning or to clear chips when milling. Using it can visibly improve finishes in some milling operations. Sometimes just use the blast of air to clear chips and do not turn on the liquid. When parting stainless, especially if leaving a thin wafer of material it does a nice job of cooling and lubing the cut. If turning tool steel and taking a decent cut with HSS I can cut much faster using the mist than I can cut dry. And using carbide cutting tool steels and stainless, I can cut faster with less heating of the part and longer cutter life with mist. Most of the time I just cut dry on 12L14 and aluminum. If grinding to a knife edge it prevents bluing/burning the edge of the material. When sawing, it is helpful to direct the mist on the blade as it exits the cut. Some of the coolant makes it around the circuit of the blade to lube the cut and the blast of air blows the swarf out of the gullets of the blade.

    In other words, for me, it is nice to have and economical to use.

    Flood coolant would be more effective but generally a mess so I do not use it. Might want it if I were really pushing for maximum production, but that is not an issue in my shop. Most likely would be running CNC with enclosed machines if production were a factor and then flood would be essential.

    I am sure there will be a a lot of pros and cons we'll see in subsequent posts in this thread. But the mist works for me.

    Denis
  3. #3
    PaulT is offline Stainless
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    Default

    Search on Trico micro drop and Acculube in this forum and you'll hit some useful discussion on "micro drop" lube systems. They use an air blast with micro drops of an oil based lube but the don't make any mist at all so they don't foul the air at all. They're not cheap but they work pretty well on mills and lathes up to 3HP or so.

    Paul T.
    Valve and Chassis Spring Tester Home Page - Power Technology Valve and Chassis Spring Tools
  4. #4
    tjd10684 is online now Cast Iron
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    Default

    I had flood coolant on my little cnc mill but have recently changed to airblast or mist. I typically work in plastic or aluminum and have found the flood to be more trouble than its worth for the materials I work with. I would think it would be the same for you if your cutting something like titanium all the time you might want flood since its hard to get the heat out of the cut. But if you just doing general machining in standard 1018 or 6061 AL then air with a quick mist here and there might be all you ever need.
  5. #5
    James Lederer is offline Aluminum
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    Default

    To all of you who have used misters, I have an application question. If I were to attach a 48" long 3/16" ID steel tube to the nozzle on a system like the Kool Mist, would a useable amount of mist make it to the end of the tube? The setup would prevent me from moving the nozzle to the end of the tube, because it holds a widget that needs the mist for a cutting application. I called Kool Mist and asked, but the lady there just gave me a canned answer that sounded like it was read from a sales sheet.
  6. #6
    Fabitfast is offline Aluminum
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    Default

    In my bandsaw, I'm currently using mist coolant. Less mess, effective. In whatever machine you have, I guess kool mist will work best.
  7. #7
    mo841 is offline Plastic
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    Default

    I like the concept of a mister but the one we have at work seems to fill the air with coolant. breathing that is not worth it. I have hoses hooked up to the ends of my bridgeport that go into a bucket to catch all the coolant I use. I typically use a 20 oz with a small hole in the cap. I spray it onto the cutter as needed. when tapping or reaming I use cutting oil from an acid brush. air is effective for some apps too, such as pockets and anywhere the chips can not be pushed away from.
  8. #8
    BGL
    BGL is offline Cast Iron
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    Default

    James, no is the answer. The air/coolant mix happens right at the tip. sure you can add a hose but it will not be a fine mist, more like air and large droplets. But you can get a longer hose from them or get creative with tubing and fittings from McMaster of Small Parts inc. I modified a system for our Haas GR510 to use the existing coolant line as the air line with a 1/4" Line-Lok nozzle, works great!
  9. #9
    BGL
    BGL is offline Cast Iron
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    Default

    mo841, yep, I hate the water based systems for that, nasty sticky residue as well. You can also get too much oil and smoke from the Micro drop and Unist [my favorite] if they are not adjusted right, some operators do not get the idea or are too lazy to read the instructions. We have machined almost daily for three years and have only used one and a half gallons of coolant and some of that got spilled!




  • [machinist] Flood or Mist Coolant, Lawrence London, 05/31/2013

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