Splash Shield - Enclosure

I don't use flood on my CNC because of the mess. I did make a copy of the Henchforth fogbuster mister for a heavy coolant spray.

if you're cooling that 40 K spindle you'll need a nice set of splash guards. I guess the size would depend on how big your parts are.

Karl

Here's one of my shield setups :

But, if the part is much larger than the table, you may have to enclose the whole machine, not just an area on top of the table. But, this setup I made can handle larger parts if they are spaced above the table, because the front and back tilt outward from the Tee slots. The sides could be made to do the same if you need that.

Jon

That gives me some ideas. One thing I was thinking of is maybe some small shields on slide lock rods that are mounted on the head. This should knock down the most energetic spray at the source, and then do a box around the table for any excess spray. Sometimes seeing other people's solutions is just what you need to get your mind going in other directions.

I have been thinking about that as a possibility. To do a really good job would be a bit involved. Not the biggest box I have ever seen, but a pretty large box would be needed. I might have to either remove my electronics from the machine, or be a little more proactive about air conditioning them. The box itself would be interesting enough. Perhaps front and side removable shower doors, but then seal the floor and cut a sump through the concrete.

Thanks Jon. I was leaning towards an aluminum frame that sets in but extends out from the table on the front and sides with slide in plexi panels. Might even give vacuum forming a shot to put an inward angled spray lip on the plexi glass. Either that or just call Ace Acrylics and let them do it. LOL. Pair that with moveable spray shields up close and it might be ok.

Oh, yeah. without some form of coolant it would just be an exercise in removing aluminum flavored chewing gum from the flutes.

I was thinking of maybe some form of moveable/ positionable splash and spray guards up close to knock down and reduce the inertia of the worst of it, and then a biger "enclosure" of some kind on the table. As mentioned in my reply to Jon I have thought about the practicality of a full enclosure on the machine as well, but I think that is mostly wishful thinking as a fairly expensive and involved project in itself.

I have two types of projects in mind for this machine. Some lower speed stuff would be large, and the high speed stuff would mostly be sub table size.

Well, no, actually high speed machining is usually done dry. The poor application of coolant to a spindle turning that fast leads to the cutter heating up and then getting a splash of coolant, and that causes thermal shock to the cutting edge. Better to just let it get hot and stay hot. But, you take a lighter cut and move the cutter past the work as fast as you possibly can to avoid heat buildup in one area. The bulk material and the chips carry away most of the heat. I read a book about it, the test case was at Boeing, doing wing spars. They were running a 75 Hp Cincinnatti spindle at

80K RPM with a 1/2" solid carbide end mill! Feedrate was over 100 IPM (I forget the exact number) and they were removing 640 cubic inches of metal per minute. This was run dry.

Jon

Ok, so show me an example of doing that with a .03125 cutter?