Old timer in Tulsa told me to ditch the coolant mist and go back to flood coolant

I was running a job on a Haas VF-2 last week, some 6061 aluminum parts, and this retired machinist who used to work at a shop down the street walks by. He watches me for a minute, then says 'why you spraying that stuff everywhere like a cologne bottle?' I laughed it off, but he kept talking. He said back in the 80s they ran everything with flood coolant and never had the tool life issues we complain about now. I figured he was just old and stuck in his ways, but I swapped to flood on that same job and my insert life went from about 80 parts per edge to 130. The mess is worse, sure, but the finish is way more consistent. Has anyone else tried going back to basics like that and seen a real difference in your numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_black1mo ago

Hey I gotta push back a little on the idea that flood coolant was the only thing they ran back in the 80s. I remember reading some old Machinery's Handbook from like 1982 and it talked about mist systems being used for certain jobs even then, especially on aluminum where heat builds up fast. Your insert life jump from 80 to 130 parts is real though, that's a solid improvement. But part of that might be because flood just moves more heat away, not because mist is bad or anything. The old timer probably had a point for that specific setup, but I wouldn't throw your mist system in the trash just yet.

the_xena1mo ago

Nah, @felix_black, I'd argue the old timer had it more right than wrong for most jobs. Flood coolant's been proven for decades, and swapping to it on aluminum gave a 50% jump in tool life that's hard to argue with.