Pneumatic bulkhead for cnc mill coolant mister

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Today's small project was to hook up the air to the cnc mill so I can turn the coolant mister on and off from software. About a year ago I hooked up the spindle control, indexer, and wired for coolant, at the time I didn't have a suitable solenoid. Long and short... the solenoid has been sitting on my desk for way too long. The the last couple years I've had to come down late at night and kick off the air if I left the mill running a job My day started trying to source all the bits to plumb this in... of course nobody stocks bulkhead connectors so I bought what would work and whipped out a quick bulkhead adapter that would bolt to the control cabinet.Pic 1: Basic layout, drilled and tapped corner bolts 5/16-18 (I'd put them both in the top next time)Pic 2: Tapping 1/4 NPT for push connectors.Pic 3: Finished back side except deburring.Pic 4: The finished part. Attached Images
Reply:Mounted it in the cabinet and hooked everything up.Pic 5: The templatePic 6: Drilled the bolt holes and the fitting clearance holes using a step bit.Pic 7: Inside shot showing the bulkhead connectors and the solenoid (the rats nest is the indexer connections )Pic 8: The finished hookup outside the cabinet.After building the part and hooking it up I realized I should have continued one of my holes all the way through and threaded it for my tool changer... instead it is hanging on using the t fitting  Attached Images
Reply:you misting highspeed tooling?tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:Originally Posted by bruceryou misting highspeed tooling?
Reply:we havent used coolant on carbide in years...  only time we use coolant now is when drilling pretty much.. we use high pressure flood but all those machines are fully enclosed highspeed machines, and can be messy as heck, they also have air only option on them...for the older vmc's I made compressed air manifolds for all 4 of them. on our boring mills we have a small air chiller that works very well..not sure of the brand it looks just like one of the ones i linked below, but we have it hard mounted on the head.. It works well on inserted tooling (facemills,feedmills,minimills, also coated endmills), i wouldnt think it would be to difficult to make one..http://www.abanaki.com/press16.html  it puts out near freezing air, works very good..Last edited by brucer; 10-26-2011 at 02:58 PM.tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:Originally Posted by brucerhttp://www.abanaki.com/press16.html  it puts out near freezing air, works very good..
Reply:Originally Posted by forhireI've looked at these but never tried one. It's hard to imagine you can get a fine finish with just cooling. I don't use very much lubricant... it's mostly air. It would be nice to be dry. Can you do 316 stainless dry?
Reply:if your drilling a bunch of stainless i would try to go to thru tool coolant, it helps a bunch..  you might even be better off helical plunging the hole. also if drilling the stainless, a high quality cobalt drill will probably be your best bet...  when sharpening the drill try not to leave too sharp an edge on the corners, stainless in notorious for grabbing sharp corners of drills...  i will usually grind a very small radius on the edge of the flute..  will also depend on the batch of stainless stock you get also..  i've seen one piece of stock machine nice, then i've seen the next piece be like machining a brick..Last edited by brucer; 10-26-2011 at 10:28 PM.tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:Originally Posted by brucerwe use an Allied Drill with thru tool coolant in the mill...  if we do alot of stainless for a job we will get stainless specific inserts..
Reply:the insert life on a lathe will differ alot from a mill, and should be far better... most of the time in a lathe your in a consistent cut, the coolant will do its job regulating the thermal load and lubricating the insert... in a mill your always pretty much in an interrupted cut.. your inserts or flutes of the endmill arent loaded consistently through the travel of the cut..   this is another reason why i think air works well in mills. but in stainless i would definitely flood it.. also to add, drilling stainless you want to keep it cool, if it gets hot the hole will open up on you, then when you get through the hole, the coolant will cool off the material and close up on you.. it pretty much sucks.... those Allied drills are nice, you'll like them...  only drills i've ran into any better are the Guhring drills but they are more application specific.. i started my apprenticeship in 1987 on a 1985 mori-seiki tl-5 with yasnac controller, it's still going to this day..Last edited by brucer; 10-27-2011 at 01:31 AM.tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:+1 to dry milling with carbide, usually the only successful flooding is done with negative/negative insert geometry and high horsepower milling.If the finish doesn't suit you try increasing surface footage first(usually means increasing feed also). If chip welding is a problem, sometimes lubricant is the easiest solution.That's an interesting mister forehire, I didn't see a price for it on the website.You can make the old Bijur systems spit as well as some other units like Cedarburg and stay pretty clean. If you have lots of money, the Trico micro drop unit uses straight lubricant and only enough air to blow any fumes resulting away from the operator. A few tool shops I know love the darn things.The venturi cold air guns I've seen need a good amount of air, but they get the job done if you don't need lubrication.MattPS - I should have added that how the insert comes into the cut can really change things for quality of cut and insert life. I really try hard to not have the insert rubbing or coming in the cut at a shallow angle if I can.Last edited by Matt_Maguire; 10-31-2011 at 08:37 AM.
Reply:Originally Posted by Matt_MaguireIf chip welding is a problem, sometimes lubricant is the easiest solution.That's an interesting mister forhire, I didn't see a price for it on the website.The venturi cold air guns I've seen need a good amount of air, but they get the job done if you don't need lubrication.
Reply:I'm not familiar with 208 forehire, maybe 2018?If so I don't remember ever fooling with it, got some nickel mixed in with the 4% copper in that alloy.I had a brain fart! I meant to say Vortex tube type coolers like seen here http://www.4-airknives.com/There is a good chance of finding these stuck in the sides of old machine tool controllers.Matt
Reply:Originally Posted by Matt_MaguireI'm not familiar with 208 forhire, maybe 2018?If so I don't remember ever fooling with it, got some nickel mixed in with the 4% copper in that alloy.
Reply:Originally Posted by brucerIt works well on inserted tooling (facemills,feedmills,minimills, also coated endmills), i wouldn't think it would be to difficult to make one..http://www.abanaki.com/press16.html  it puts out near freezing air, works very good..
Reply:Originally Posted by forhireAfter spending way too much time reading about making one.... I bit the bullet and ordered one... they aren't cheap  Can't wait to see how it works.
Reply:found this surfing tonight http://www.newmantools.com/vortex.htm  http://www.newmantools.com/vor610.htm#610 , you might compare pricing... i'm gonna guess around $300.  i bet it saves you a lot more than that, and those chillers dont wear out.  i use one thats over 20yrs old and it still blows very cold.. we mounted 1/4 turn ball valves on the output side of ours, and hard mounted them...  if you got the magnet, it will make a nice print holder Last edited by brucer; 11-05-2011 at 12:30 AM.tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/