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Always ran my CNC dry until a veteran operator told me to use coolant
I used to run my CNC without coolant because I thought it made a mess and slowed me down. Then an old timer named Dave stopped by my machine and said 'you're killing your tool life running dry like that.' He showed me his numbers and he was getting 3 times more cuts per endmill than me. I switched to a flood coolant setup about 2 months ago and it changed everything. My surface finish is way smoother now and I change tools half as often. The cleanup is annoying but it pays off with the money I save on tooling. Has anyone else seen a big jump in tool life after adding coolant?
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patking1mo ago
Wait so you ran dry for YEARS without anyone telling you?? That's wild. I had a similar experience when I first started running my Bridgeport mill - the old guys in the shop just watched me struggle for months before one finally walked over and showed me the coolant trick. Now I'll never run a cut dry again unless its something weird like aluminum sometimes. The tool life difference is honestly crazy.
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hugo_hayes1mo ago
@patking yeah I run carbide dry on aluminum too, cutting fluid just gums everything up for me.
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