23
My brother-in-law insisted I should always run a dry cycle on a new aluminum job, and he was dead wrong.
He said it would save time and catch any issues, but on a recent 6061 part run in Phoenix, it just gummed up the tool with chips and caused a nasty crash. What's your actual best practice for a first run on a new aluminum setup?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
grace92612d ago
Why would you run it dry though? That's asking for trouble with aluminum sticking. I always use a good flood coolant from the start, even for a test cut. It keeps things clean and shows you how the chips actually wash away.
2
zarak1812d ago
Yeah I saw a machinist on YouTube do a whole video on this. He was cutting some 6061 and ran it dry just to show what happens. The chips welded themselves right back onto the workpiece in less than a minute. It was a mess. He said even a cheap mister is way better than nothing because it breaks that heat cycle. Watching that made me a total flood coolant believer for aluminum.
8