Climb Milling

[Neil LickfoldParticipant @neillickfold44316]

Posted by Douglas Johnston on 12/10/2015 08:51:56:

In a small poorly ventilated workshop there might be a health issue with mist coolant.

Doug

You are right. Soluble oil coolants should not be sprayed through an air misters. The only oils that I have been involved with in the misters have all been edible cooking oils. I would think that sulphurised cutting oils would be bad news as well. Most machining centers these days have those oil recovery systems on them, to help to clean up the air from the coolant just being hosed onto the work piece. When they use the oil mister, the air quality is better than when they use flood coolant. Now days there is more research into cutter coating for cutting virtually dry, without the use of flood cooling. Some types of work, have to be flood cooled, but the technology will be developed to the point of just air mist or eventually just air will be the coolant and chip remover of the future. Soluble cutting oils I do not think are good to any environment, and I am not sure if it can even be easily distilled out of the water supply if it gets there. Very digressed from climb milling, but probably important anyway.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

If using sunflower oil as you describe, then there's less oil getting in the air than with one of THESE.

Neil

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Thanks Emgee, another one on the 'to do' list.

[martyn nutlandParticipant @martynnutland79495]

 

Enough here to scare the living daylights out of any beginner; myself included. That's a pity.

I think the basic problem for newcomers to machining is that it is difficult to visualise the difference between 'climb or hook' milling and conventional or ordinary milling when you are standing in front of the machine. Even some of the 'great and the good' seem unsure when viewing the picture that started Neil off on this theme! The confusion is compounded because most of the printed diagrams seem to portray the processes on a horizontal milling machine, a type a lot less familiar to most of us than the vertical variety.

All that said, Graeme W is probably correct when he suggests an article on this subject is not warranted. Given the premise that a (good) picture is worth a thousand words, if you look selectively, you can find superb explanations of the operation on YouTube and I am going to provide three links.

The first is to Erik Vaaler. For those not already acquainted with Mr Vaaler, he provides a wide range of professional quality videos presented using utterly sound and safe techniques in a crystal clear format. The section on climb milling is in 'Machine Shop 7 Milling Machine 4'. Come in at 17 minutes if you must, but most of us will benefit from the whole episode and, indeed, all his other offerings.

Here he is: watch?v=acnFuBpoiKs >**LINK**

For a more homely approach, though none the less clear, try 'John' in 'How Not To Climb'. Come in at 29 minutes for climb milling including

simple diagrams anyone can understand.

Enjoy John here: watch?v=zsvhi1uTTSQ >**LINK**

Finally, if you are troubled by scarey slitting saw dramas 'call up' Erik, or 'Tom' in 'Monday Night Meatloaf (don't ask me why his series has such a stupid title) 15'. Apart from both experts showing safe use of this potentially brutal device, Tom explains for beginners what saw you need for what task. Thus, don't use a blade with multiple teeth if you want to saw stock in half, this tool is for delicate jobs such as producing an immaculate screwdriver slot. If you want to saw per se, use a blade with a small number of large teeth. Nobody told me that!

Meatloaf here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SudBYa-8VA

After watching John I wrote in my notebook NEVER CLIMB MILL except for a very very light finishing pass. Seems fair enough.

And after watching Erik and Tom I wrote on slitting saws:

NEVER FIT THE ARBOR KEY

GO AS SLOW AS YOU CAN

USE LOTS AND LOTS (FLOODs) OF COOLANT/LUBRICATION

TAKE LIGHT CUTS

STOP, WITHDRAW AND CLEAR THE CHIPS FREQUENTLY

NEVER EVER CLIMB MILL.

Fair?

All the best one and all. Martyn

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I regularly climb mill, and I've only got an X2. Perhaps I don't know any better.

Neil

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Posted by Douglas Johnston on 12/10/2015 08:51:56:

In a small poorly ventilated workshop there might be a health issue with mist coolant.

Doug

OT I know but… The name coolant mister is a bit of a misleading description which leads to the worries about suspended coolant mist and fogging. The idea with these devices is NOT to produce a mist of coolant but an airstream containing tiny droplets of coolant. I use spray coolant devices on my mill and both lathes and never suffer with fog or mist in the workshop. The units I currently use are based on the Hench fogbuster.

These work very well although I've just bought a couple of cheap spray units from china which work without having to pressurise the coolant tank. Initial experiments with these look quite promising and they are less than £10 each. The coolant in these units is drawn to the nozzle by the venturi principle.

Edited By Graeme W on 17/10/2015 17:09:32

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Hi Graeme,

is your Chinese model one of these?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mist-Coolant-Lubrication-Spray-System-CNC-Lathe-Milling-Drill-Grind-Machine-A-/371343389716?hash=item5675ca7414:g:Kz4AAOSw~OdVXUgq

If so can you let us know how well it works and how much air it uses? Don't want my compressor running all the time, but I have a little air pump I can use.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Duncan, yes very similar, it needs about 10-15 psi to get it to lift the fluid from the coolant reservoir, I can't comment yet on air consumption as I've not run it long enough. All my air powered gear runs off a 200 litre tank on the compressor so small kit like this doesn't cause the compressor to kick in very often, If you are thinking of an aquarium type air pump then forget it, they are useless for this type of device.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Hi Graeme W. I agree 100% with your description, droplets being sprayed on the work, not a true misting system which have received bad reports. My system can be seen working at the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRiiEywpzZk

Emgee

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