Mist Coolant
Got a simple coolant system for my Mini Mill and Lathe.
Koolmist Portamist Mist Coolant – Got mist because I didn’t want to deal with flood coolant and I can use it with just air to blow chips if I dont need the coolant.
Nozzle just mag mounts to the mill head –
Feed’s from a jug under bench –
Video – have to turn up the air to get the coolant to feed, but once its flowing can turn it down to a very fine mist camera cannot pickup.
Easy to setup once I got my air system finished. I got two, one leaks even when closed which I’m going to have to call enco about.
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I have the same setup. I don’t turn it on, though, unless I’m milling steel. Actually I got it because I had a few tool steel blocks I had to machine and the first one I tried without coolmist ruined the expensive cutter that I thought I could keep cool enough with a can of WD40. Got the job done, but found that for meaningful cooling and lubrication you have to up the airflow a bit. The fog is visible when it has coolmist in it; when it goes invisible the chips start turning blue and you have to watch it constantly to make sure it has liquid feeding through. On that job I actually moved my jug (have the same jug you have) and sat it on top the machine so I would have guaranteed gravity feed. When the cut was over I’d move the jug down to stop it. PIA and I don’t use it on alum, only steel. I thought same thing as you; that there was still coolant flowing even if it was invisible; but the chip color told me otherwise. I still have 1 more block to do but I put it off for now as these cuts take a long time… These are actually tool holders for my lathe, I buy the 1″ square ones for big machines and cut them down to like .650″ or so on the height so they will fit into my BXA holders. Much better and stiffer result than the tiny ones designed for my machine.
You may want to relocate your nozzle. It goes on the infeed side; my cuts are usually from the left so my nozzle is on the left, and I have it about 45 degrees on my left. The tool picks up the cut near the edge of material closest to the operator, in front of me, so that’s where the heat starts. If you are feeding from the right then your above location is correct but needs to be moved away from the operator slightly, to the far side of the cutter, for a standard clockwise rotating spindle. The heat input on a right to left feed starts at 12 o clock, directly away from the operator, and ends at 6 o’clock, behind you. I would put it at 2 o clock because greatest heat occurs when the bit is going into the work and the feed is into the bit; highest relative speed. After 3 o clock the material and bit are travelling same direction so chip load decreases. But the 2 oclock location blows chips right at the operator’s left hand/side, so that’s why I feed from the left and have the nozzle at about 8 oclock, to blow the chips back away from me and into my makeshift cabinet (I just ziptied a bunch of plexiglas panels around the 3 sides of my machine and left the near side open to work with).
walt
We use coolmist on all of our manual machines at work the only time that is a mess is in the lathe when your up close to the chuck doing face work on the part the your getting hit with some mist but its really not bad …and as far as the cold air guns go ve used them too but they don’t lube the tool so you still gaul up and dull your tooling but they do a damn good job at keeping the tool cold..
Small droplets shadoh, will collect some if its running for a while, but no where near as much as flood,
When its set low (where I’ll use it) its more like small droplets so hopefully I wont have the steamy hot shower look.
More cool stuff YN?… Enough already… Ya makin me crazy ova here 🙂
Wont the mist still collect and form liquid all over the place?
Who’s your cousin? I can look it up on the yallow page for ya 😆 😆 😆
Nice set up!
I’ve avoided the mist system since my shop floor is wooden. I’ve been thinking about the cold air vortex system. I got the chance to try one at the class I was teaching weekend before last and I’m Impressed!!! 😯 😀
Mike
I worked for a company as operator/Tool setter, running 4 Acme Bar machines, making schrader valves (Auto tire air valves) out of brass. The coolant was like Fog, you couldn’t see more than about 10 feet. Had to clean my safety glasses about every 5 minuets. You couldn’t see from one end to other of the machine room….or anything through oily safety glasses.
I think it was harder on my eyes, than my lungs, no mask require. I believe the coolant was coconut oil and water, Looked just like milk. White thin liquid,
Today that plant has the shower curtains and a vacuum system. No fog and no oily safety glasses. My cousin still works there?
Sam
You’re getting a nice set up goin there. I would wear a dust mask when you use mist though cause even water soluble coolant is not a good vapor to breathe and I can see how much a PIA flood would be to contain and filter. You might want to consider putting up a shower curtain by bending conduit into a U around the area- that mist will accumulate everywhere after awhile.
I though coolant is better than air, specially it blow those dust everywhere and if breathe it, what happened to your lung?
Gotta say I’m very happy with Enco – Hit 1 for Customer service and it didn’t even ring before someone picked up.
Sending UPS to pick up the defective one and sending me a replacement. Sucks to get something and have to pay return shipping and then have to wait for the replacement.
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I’ll try relocating it, I just figured with the CNC it could be cutting any direction so there wasn’t much point to the location other than to try and blow the chips to the rear away from me. I just picked the side that had the most metal to mount the base too.
I can still see the mist – just the camera couldn’t pick it up.
Used it on a program that took two hours to cut (until I f’d up) last night and it did well.