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Fan to blow away milling chips - Help needed

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David Morrow:
I have a small Sherline CNC mill. It really throws out a lot of chips. At first I just brushed them away but that meant sitting there the entire time while it was running. Next, I used a vacuum connected to some Loc-line which meant I could get in really close to collect the chips but the noise of the vacuum and the mill just became deafening. After that, I used flood coolant but that gets really messy.

So, now my thoughts are taking me to possibly using a fan - think blow dryer sort of fan ( without the heat ). Something that I could also direct through the Loc-line to direct the air. Something quiet, and low voltage or just plug into the wall would be ideal. I'm happy to make up adapters, shrouds, or whatever I need to make it all work.

This is my vacuum system which I would likely re-purpose to fan use :
http://www.ldrider.ca/cnc/vacuum/vacuum.htm

And the flood coolant :
http://www.ldrider.ca/cnc/coolant/coolant.htm

jiihoo:
Hi David,

How about using an airbrush compressor? They are reasonably priced and reasonably quiet (55 - 62 dBL, a typical vacuum cleaner is 75 dBL or above). John-Som has two good ones listed here: http://start-model-engineering.co.uk/machines-and-tooling/air-compressor/ (AS06 and AS09). John uses them to power steam engines.

I have the AS09 and occasionally use it for blowing air on the cutter to clean chips away (think pocketing...). It works well as these kind of compressors produce a lot of air volume as long as the pressure requirement is low. I believe you could attach it to your lockline system; my nozzle is a 4(?) mm brass tube held in place by an old dial indicator holder.

The amount of air produced by the AS09 is more than sufficient. It might be that the cheaper and even more quiet AS06 would also be enough; I don't know. Both are small enough to hide under a desk (just keep the swarf away as the designers probably didn't have a metalworking shop environment in mind when designing them :-)

Cheers,


Jari

DaveH:
David,

One of the best ways I have found  to get rid of the chips, is to use the air in a non continuous manner.

Such as Puff .................Puff .................Puff ..................Puff

Reminds me of that song Puff the magic dragon.
 :beer:
DaveH

Zephyrin:
Hi
in the workshop, at work, mechanicians use a continuous flow of air to cool mill and blow chips, they have a tap in the wall with compressed air;  clearly less messy than oily coolant.
However, how to get rid off all those chips peppered everywhere in the workshop, by pushing them under the carpet of course.
 Francois

Chazz:
I use a pressure reducer to about 15LBS off our compressor to a loc-line mister system (with out the coolant).

Cheers,
Chazz

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