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Aimable coolant nozzles, quick 'n dirty, cheap too!

Tired of moving the coolant nozzle to stay with various tools on a production part, I was looking for a quick-n-dirty, not to mention cheap, method of directing coolant where I want it. Poking around in my packrat treasure vault, I found some 5/16 plastic balls. No idea where I got them or what they are made of, but they fit just fine in 1/4" compression fittings (sans the ferrule of course). Drill a through hole, viola. A short length of 1/8" brass tubing allows easy pointing without tools. Drill the hole a touch larger and a short length of the same tube slides in temporarily to assist in aiming. First one I made up has about 1" of tubing extending from the nut. With just finger tightening, it locks tight enough to almost bend the tube before the ball slips. Just eyeballing it, looks like not quite 30 degrees of angle obtainable, more if I bevel the nut on the outside. Fittings are $1.49 each at the local hardware store, the plastic balls can probably be had cheap from McMaster.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson
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What advantage does this have over locline? You still gotta aim it, right? I was expecting something on the order of multiple holes in the balls, like a shower head.

Locline doesn't count as cheap? Cheaper than carbide, dats f'sure.... :)

Aiming, or loss thereof, seems to me to be an inherent vicissitude of multiple length tools, unless you are one of The Chosen with programmable coolant -- or Even More Chosen, with high pressure programmable coolant.

Fadals have a cabinet drain sprayer plumbed separately from tool coolant. I tee'd into this line, valved it, put a pressure gauge on it (toward the ends of Fadal Pimpedness), and ran a 1/4" clear hose to a locline ditty, for stationary coolant, that does not move with the tool, but stays on the piece. I have only one, but the more the better.

Someone here posted some time ago about using a manifold -- could be as simple as alternating plumbing nipples and tee's, with valved loclines at each T.

I split each of the three outlets on the spindle head, for a total of six, which pretty much catches everything. I rarely get to put the flood on full (about 30 psi on my machine).

Reply to
Proctologically Violated©®

Locline is fairly cheap, but I find it annoying how easy it is to bump them out of alignment. Maybe should have stated, this is on a lathe, a Hardinge chucker with an Omniturn. I have a simple splash shield over the spindle, and running three Loclines in under that would be clumsy. What I'm putting together will require a whack with a hammer to move... And, I just like to make things. I'm one of those guys that likes to make tools to make things, never seem to get around to making things. (for myself that is)

That's what I'm going to do, in a nice compact setup, with 4 nozzles along the length of the part. But no valves, this setup will be specific to this job. BTW, noticed the nuts on these fittings have a sharp edge on the inside corner, a bit of a chamfer really smooths things up.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

--Heh. Haven't seen an Omniturn in decades. I remember going to the factory in the '70s.

Reply to
steamer

These guys make some nice stuff:

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Best, Steve

Reply to
Garlicdude

Jon Anderson wrote in news:1ix6l.39392$se4.16657 @en-nntp-03.dc1.easynews.com:

Use these for a cheap distribution block for your coolant lines. They even have mounting holes........

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Reply to
Anthony

good selection of stuff!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

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