Kirk,
nice machines.
I have to try this ethanol mist myself. Ethanol is less expensive as
good oil and less hazardous for you health.
> Using an Ethanol based mist, must have a lot of hazard, corrosion and HR
> issues?
>
Oil or emulsion based cooling is a mess. The substances used are not
quite that nice on both people and the environment.
I have a Noga 2000 oil drip pump with mist option. The oil goes
everywhere and without real good ventilation the whole shop is full of
oily air.
Cleaning the machine afterwards is a pain in the ... The oil sticks to
every part within 20" of where the mill has been.
Emulsion is even worse. A lot of machinists warned me for the corrosive
behaviour of the emulsion - this is the main reason why a lot of
machines have rusty inner parts.
Ethanol is non corrosive on metal, unfortunately it is never pure and
contains water (4-40%), so will not do (any more) harm to metals than
the emulsion. As a big pro, you do not need to clean your workpiece to
get rid of the oil or emulsion. Due to the ethanol vaporizing it is a
very good coolant and I use it a lot for drilling and milling of
aluminum. My machining handbook even suggests ethanol as primary cooling
for this.
The reason why (pure) ethanol is used instead of the more common
methanol/ethanol is because it is not (as) harmfull. It will get you
drunk but it will not kill you.
Ethanol mist is definitely less harmfull than oil mist.
One tip: never use isopropane alcohol instead of ethanol. Yes, the
isopropane smells better (a nice sweet smell) but it will get you high
by inhaling. I've used it quite some times to clean printer circuit
boards and at one time my boss sent both me and a colleague home because
we were not able to do our jobs anymore :-)
P.s: what I like on the Datron machine is the change of the direction of
the mist, depending on the milling direction. Would be interesting to
know if this is automatic or a G-code action.
Regards,
Rob
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