Guy at the shop swore by coolant mist instead of flood cooling on aluminum parts

I was doing a production run of 200 aluminum brackets on my Haas last Friday and a machinist from the next bay over said I was wasting coolant running it full flood. So I switched to a mist setup and within 30 parts my surface finish went to hell and I burned through two end mills before I switched back. Has anyone else had a bad experience following someone's coolant advice on aluminum jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannahk198d ago

Yeah I've had nearly the exact same thing happen with 6061 on a job running a 3/8 end mill. Mist just doesn't give enough chip evacuation on aluminum, it sticks and welds right back onto the cutter even if the air pressure is cranked up. Stick with flood unless you're doing really shallow finishing passes or using a high rake geometry that can actually push the chips clear.

riley_taylor8d agoMost Upvoted

Strikes me how often the easy fix turns out to be the wrong one across the board.