Bandsaw Coolant?

B

Buggy Chief

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Just ordered a 7x12 horizontal bandsaw for my home shop. Will be cutting aluminum and steel and would prefer not to have to change coolants out. Any recommendations? TIA...
 
Some people run cutting or machine oil in the coolant systems of their machines. They are poor coolants, but do not cause rust, do not go rancid, do not stink, and help to protect the machine. It can still be quite messy and still be a PITA. Shop air can be a pretty good coolant for some things, and mist coolant systems set to deliver a light mist help a lot with a lot less of the problems that flood coolants cause. My attitude is that I am a hobby machinist and I can take lighter cuts, work slower, and take time to let things cool down. The coolant tank on my lathe is still factory dry.
 
Interesting perspective Bob. Tell me more? For example, I have a 6" diameter 6160 round stock that I need to part off at .375" depth.

I also have an abanaki chillybits air vortex cooler that I was thinking about using as well. Thoughts?


QUOTE="Bob Korves, post: 440238, member: 32170"]Some people run cutting or machine oil in the coolant systems of their machines. They are poor coolants, but do not cause rust, do not go rancid, do not stink, and help to protect the machine. It can still be quite messy and still be a PITA. Shop air can be a pretty good coolant for some things, and mist coolant systems set to deliver a light mist help a lot with a lot less of the problems that flood coolants cause. My attitude is that I am a hobby machinist and I can take lighter cuts, work slower, and take time to let things cool down. The coolant tank on my lathe is still factory dry.[/QUOTE]
 
In my experiences with cutting aluminum, on a 6" 6061 the tpi is far more important than cooling or lube. the tpi should be 4 or 6 tpi or you will end up getting metal sticking to the teeth. I cut 1.5" ingots and have found that any more then 10tpi has build up problems no mater how cool or lubed the blade is the ingots are also 356 alloy which doesn't stick as bad as 6061.

Art B
 
Buggy Chief said:
Interesting perspective Bob. Tell me more? For example, I have a 6" diameter 6160 round stock that I need to part off at .375" depth.

I also have an abanaki chillybits air vortex cooler that I was thinking about using as well. Thoughts?(snip)
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A little kerosene or WD-40 will help to stop the aluminum swarf from sticking to the blade. master53yoda is correct that you need a coarse pitch blade on aluminum that big so the gullets do not fill up with chips and bind in the cut. I find 6061 in the t6 or t651 temper to be quite easy to cut on a band saw. If your saw has controlled down feed, keep pressure on the blade enough to get it cutting freely but not enough to clog the gullets. By the way, another good lubricant for use on the band saw is wax, which can be purchased in sticks for metal cutting. You rub it on the blade while the saw is running. It is not messy. I am currently using various leftover cross country ski wax tubes, left over from the 1970's, with my band saw. It works!

I have cut 1" slices of 6" round 6061-t6 on my HF 4x6 band saw, and it worked just fine.

The vortex cooler will work better than the shop air, but will be even noisier.
 
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When I got my Jet bandsaw, used, the fellow had cutting oil in to for coolant. It was a mess, and would barely flow even in warm temps. I drained that mess and got some water soluble oil from Amazon and am now using that. The only drawback being that the water will freeze in the winter since my garage isn't heated except when I'm in it. Kept the old cutting oil and now use in in my cans for parting and threading.

Chris
 
I use this: http://www.monroefluid.com/productdisplay/astro-saw/74
Enco sold it as a concentrate in single gallons, which last forever. I assume it's still available at other dealers. Doesn't go bad, doesn't gum up your wheels, and apparently doesn't leave a residue to mess up welding, as oil does. Only drawback I found is it ate the Asian-spec paint on the pan of my bandsaw; Rustoleum fixed that. It is a water-based fluid, so people in frigid places might have a problem. (This is south Florida. We choose not to participate in the polar vortex.)
 
I use a mix of motor oil, water, and a little dish detergent. It's cheap and seems to work well.
 
I use Koolrite 2290 on my CNC mill for both mist and flood. I went through two others before I found this one. It has almost no odor, no rust issues, has never gone rancid, does not irritate my skin and does not leave much of a residue. I change it out once a year to get rid of the tramp oil, not really an issue with a band saw. One of the items on my to-do list is to build a new cart for the cheapo HF saw and add a coolant system.
 
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