From: none@none.com99   
      
   First off let me emphasize I firmly believe based on hearsay, direct   
   knowledge, experience, and the opinions of experts that a flood of water   
   soluble cutting coolant like (but not limited to) SC520 and water is the   
   magic sauce.   
      
   In my journey to that conclusion I tried a variety of other options from   
   standing there for hours with a spray can of WD40, to crappy little home   
   made mist systems, to brushed on cutting oil, to air blast, to vortex   
   tubes, and even ran flood *transmission fluid for a while.  Flood   
   transmission fluid was the best until I went to flood water soluble   
   coolant.   
      
   As I bragged shamelessly about in another post I finally got around to   
   buying another CNC wood ripper.  Wood Ripper 2.  Wood Ripper 1 has been   
   disassembled and the parts stacked out of the way for some time.  Like   
   with Wood Ripper 1, Wood Ripper 2 was not intended to be used with   
   metals.  Atleast not initially, but now some of the projects seeping   
   into my front brain involve sheet aluminum.  I suspect some aluminum   
   cutting will be coming along sooner than originally planned.   
      
   Now before anybody says, "Well I cut aluminum dry or with just a little   
   cutting oil brushed on all the time," I know.  I actually do too.  On   
   the manual knee mill I cut blanks square and to length all the time   
   before taking them over to one of the CNC mills.  A very light spray of   
   WD40 is what I usually go with.  Tap Magic is a little better, but a   
   spray can of WD40 is so much easier.  A quick sprits and wave and start   
   turning the handle almost as fast as I can.  Typically I make a rough   
   pass in climb to remove the bulk and a spring pass in conventional to   
   clean it up.  I know that may sound backwards to some, but it works.  I   
   do this with a 1/2 inch 3 Flute Alumacut mill from *Rogue Systems Inc,   
   and the one in the tool tray by that machine is several years old.  With   
   smaller mills I have run into problems, but that big old polished 1/2   
   inch mill is amazing.  Chips just fly, and big ones.  Once it gets a   
   little warm on the spring pass it can throw chips back on the finished   
   surface and they will stick if it doesn't get a sprits of WD first.   
      
   Well on the new Onefinitey Elite I'd need an enclosure 64 x 68 inches   
   roughly square (bigger really) and the mother of catch basins to run   
   flood coolant.   
      
   When I was still fighting flood every way I could I tried some of the   
   coatings that are supposed to be the juice for aluminum, and honestly...   
   well they aren't.  ZrN, PVD Diamond, etc.   
      
   So now with this new machine coming into the shop I am regressing.  I'm   
   looking for a less than full flood answer to cutting aluminum without   
   chip welding, breaking cutters, and ruining work pieces.  So far my best   
   compromise might be spray mist with a vacuum recovery system.  Hopefully   
   the liquid from the mist would drop out in the separator like chips do.   
      
   For now my conclusion is still that based on hearsay, direct knowledge,   
   experience, and the opinions of experts that a flood of water soluble   
   cutting coolant like (but not limited to) SC520 and water is the magic   
   sauce.   
      
   *  Yes flood transmission fluid worked, the parts looked great, cutter   
   life was very good, and my shop smelled like a turbo hydro 350 burning   
   up because somebody put the wrong clutch piston in it during a rebuild.   
   It would consume the fluid.  Either burning it or vaporizing it, but it   
   produced great results.   
      
   **  Rogue Systems Inc is a small (one man maybe) CNC grinding shop in   
   the PNW (No Snag, I don't think he's a slug) that produces a range of   
   solid carbide ball nose and square end mills sold on eBay and on his own   
   website.  Carbide Tool Source.  His Alumacut end mills are every bit as   
   good as any other aluminum geometry mill I have tried and a little   
   cheaper than most.  He also makes the least expensive solid carbide   
   multi flute single form thread mills I have run across.  Well and a few   
   other things.  Solid carbide boring bars, multi form thread mills, and   
   some other cool stuff.   
      
      
      
      
      
   --   
   Bob La Londe   
   CNC Molds N Stuff   
      
      
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