Water or air coolant for your shapeoko?

[jkanzaki]

Hey Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has done any modification in terms of adding water coolant or compress air to their setup?
Other member in the forum suggested adding WD40 when milling aluminum, which lead me to think there gotta be a more automated way to inject coolant or compress air ( i suppose this is a seperate discussion ) to the mill area.

I think compress air set up would be nice too.

So what would be the best setup for shapeoko, with a DW660 spindle

Any thoughts?

Cheers

[TonyB]

Here's a good example, though it's not a Shapeoko:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYX83fc1yRY

It is a DIY CNC.

I've watched quite a few of the videos on his channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/radioshack7?feature=watch

This is what I have done so far with mine:




I basically just ran a small tube through my drag chain and used barb fittings to connec to the bendable nozzle and the air hose. I plan to add some type of mist of flood coolant system, but I have been busy on other things (milling HDPE, cutting vinyl, etc.).

I'd be interested to know where others go with this. I messaged Improbable Construct to get his opinion recently and he said things went well for him when he cut it dry (note that his machine is heavily modified and can't really be compared to others). I need to make some adjustments, to both my Shapeoko and my speed/feed, and I might be able to get to the point where I can cut it dry; I can say for sure that he WD40 was a make it or break it sort of deal when I was cutting aluminum.

[jkanzaki]

Hello tonyB

Thanks for sharing your setup. What is the coolant tank / set up you use? Seems to me you are just connecting to a air compressor tank ?

Thanks

[calica]

I have good results cutting aluminum dry. Dual y motors. I still need to double rail my X. Using a Destiny Tool Viper 1/8 endmill. I'm only taking 0.1mm cuts but could probably do 0.2 without problem.

I need to make a dust vac shoe and an enclosure.

[jkanzaki]

I have good results cutting aluminum dry. Dual y motors. I still need to double rail my X. Using a Destiny Tool Viper 1/8 endmill. I'm only taking 0.1mm cuts but could probably do 0.2 without problem.

I need to make a dust vac shoe and an enclosure.

how many flute?

[TonyB]

What is the coolant tank / set up you use? Seems to me you are just connecting to a air compressor tank ?

It's just air right now. I am at a bit of a standstill on what coolant setup to go with.

[calica]

how many flute?

2 flute. From drillman1 on eBay. His price is really good too. Wish he had a 1/16".

Really nice endmill. Had a bit of an oops with it. My CAM uses a G28 at the end of a job. I recently reinstalled LinuxCNC so it defaulted to 0,0,0 in machine coords. Did a rapid right into a 1/8" alum L I was using for hold down. Cut it like butter for about 3/8" before I got to the estop.

Here's the link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/380659555226?ss ... 1439.l2649

[calica]

It's just air right now. I am at a bit of a standstill on what coolant setup to go with.

Look at freckleface.com They have cheap thick large cutting boards. Would make a good coolant safe table.