Visited a shop that swore by flood coolant on aluminum...

Stopped by a local shop in Toledo last Thursday and every single operator was running flood coolant on their aluminum parts. I get that it keeps chips down and temp stable, but I swear it makes everything a sticky mess on the table and vise. I've been running mist coolant on 6061 for three years and my finishes look better and cleanup takes half the time. Anyone else think flood is overrated for aluminum unless you're pushing heavy feeds?

3 comments

3 Comments

wrenh651mo ago

Flood on aluminum is basically making a mess just to make a mess. Mist all day.

sageross1mo ago

Used to run mist myself and thought flood was overkill, but I swapped a few years ago and now I'm a believer. @wrenh65 I hear what you're saying about the mess though, that part never goes away.

thomas.tyler6d ago

Wren you're not wrong about the mess, I still find little puddles of coolant in places I didn't know existed weeks later. Sageross took me a solid year before I stopped second guessing myself every time I saw it run down the driveway. Guess some of us just have to learn the hard way that maybe we're the mess, not the system.