Nice work! Having been down this path, I strongly encourage you to take the plunge and work out a flood coolant solution. The first one on my PCNC1100 was stock tank and pump. I didn't have an enclosure so I made a frame from PVC and hung a shower curtain from the PVC pipes along the top, tucked those into the tray and held the bottoms with magnets. Yes, just as awful as it sounds. But I didn't realize until then that a) Slotting passes can actually work without breaking an end mill, b) surface finish can be good, c) I can machine parts about 4X faster with coolant versus the fogbuster setup. It was annoying to deal with flood coolant this way, but I wish I had setup flood immediately, it would have saved a ton of time babying things and blowing chips away by hand and it would have saved a ton of time wasted on broken end mills. You won't regret it.
My dilemma is that the machine will most likely sit up to a month or two, and based on how I got the machine, with nasty dried up coolant that was almost 1/2” thick in places, and rust all over, I’m worried that could happen again. How long does your machine sit? And what coolant do you use? I’m scarred for life after cleaning this thing haha.
Thanks! It definitely has its challenges, but this will be knife number 4 and 5 that I’m working on now, so far so good. I have a few videos of making the first one on the tube of you, machining, hardening, and anodizing. I’m no expert, and I’m a worse videographer, but I’ve found watching them at like 1.5X speed makes them at least watchable, haha. I’m getting better though I think.
Nice work! Having been down this path, I strongly encourage you to take the plunge and work out a flood coolant solution. The first one on my PCNC1100 was stock tank and pump.
I didn't have an enclosure so I made a frame from PVC and hung a shower curtain from the PVC pipes along the top, tucked those into the tray and held the bottoms with magnets. Yes, just as awful as it sounds. But I didn't realize until then that a) Slotting passes can actually work without breaking an end mill, b) surface finish can be good, c) I can machine parts about 4X faster with coolant versus the fogbuster setup.
It was annoying to deal with flood coolant this way, but I wish I had setup flood immediately, it would have saved a ton of time babying things and blowing chips away by hand and it would have saved a ton of time wasted on broken end mills. You won't regret it.
My dilemma is that the machine will most likely sit up to a month or two, and based on how I got the machine, with nasty dried up coolant that was almost 1/2” thick in places, and rust all over, I’m worried that could happen again. How long does your machine sit? And what coolant do you use? I’m scarred for life after cleaning this thing haha.
Making a knife with a cnc isn’t easy. Good luck. 👍
Thanks! It definitely has its challenges, but this will be knife number 4 and 5 that I’m working on now, so far so good. I have a few videos of making the first one on the tube of you, machining, hardening, and anodizing. I’m no expert, and I’m a worse videographer, but I’ve found watching them at like 1.5X speed makes them at least watchable, haha. I’m getting better though I think.