The day I stopped using coolant flood and switched to mist

Back when I started running CNC mills in 2019, I thought more coolant was always better. I'd run the flood nozzle wide open on every job, making a huge mess and going through 5 gallons of concentrate every two weeks. Then I had a job with a tight tolerance on a stainless part last March, and the flood was causing thermal growth that threw my dimensions off by .003. Switched to a mist setup with a .005 orifice and a tiny air line, and the parts came out dead nuts on the first try. Now I only flood for roughing passes on aluminum, and my shop floor is way less of a slip hazard. Anyone else find that less coolant actually gives better finishes?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamie_clark11d ago

Hesitate to agree with you there. I ran mist for a while on some hardened tool steel parts and got inconsistent tool life and surface finish because the chip evacuation was garbage. Flood coolant might be messy but it flushes chips out of the cut zone every time, and without that you risk recutting chips and galling up your finish. On stainless especially I want maximum heat transfer to keep the cutting edge stable, not a tiny air blast. There's a reason production shops stick with flood on tough materials it prevents a lot of headaches. You might have gotten lucky with that one part geometry but flood has been the standard for decades for good reason.

bettyh8412d ago

Man I spent so long mopping that stuff up I should've just bought a slip n slide instead.