Bit cooling when cutting aluminum

[Balefire]

i use mister AND spoilboard vacuum hold down, no gasket, however there is noticeable expansion of the table surface when large deposits of oil puddle on the table.... but a quick resurface and its always been good-to-go.

but oil puddles are rare, as with the misting system you're not putting much on the plate to begin with and most of the oil is pulled up & away from the table surface with upcut bits and evacuated with the chips.

try a 40%/60% ratio of mentholated spirits and water, no residue, pretty much dries itself

 

[MikePro]

i try to limit the amount of water i put anywhere near my steel based router system. whenever i'm too forgetful to drain the air compressors and end up putting wet air through the mister, all my chucks get a nice glaze of rust. Always game to try something new, however, as oil prices are skyrocketing. (Thanks O'Biden)

i currently use TriCool MD7 vegetable-based oil/coolant. The TC1 synthetic is good too, but it has always been the culprit of the oil-pooling (that I referenced above) as it runs so thin that it flows like water even on the lowest oil output setting.

 

[Z SIGNS]

What John Miller said. You don't need a coolant.

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[Vassago]

Well.. A vortex cooler is a pretty simple thing - basically just a tube with air being added unequally so it rotates - just like a dyson vaccum cleaner - cold air comes out the front - hot out the back.

They work very well on aluminium, but the main thin to think about when cutting aluminium is the cutter itself & the alloy your cutting. Generally you'd use a single flute cutter - highly polished - but either uncoated or a non aluminium based coating (titanium nitride, etc) - certain grades of aluminum are gummy when cutting - best thing is to do test runs in the different stock you have to see the best feed rates - high spindle speeds & feed rates are usually a good idea.

 

[Evan Gillette]

I found this interesting a couple of years ago when looking into vortex tube coolers. I don't run any coolant but also do low volume aluminum cutting usually 063 and 080. Like others have said the right bit will do the job, but I have no doubt that coolant or lubricant would make the same bit last longer.