Hello! I recently started experimenting with aluminum and love it. I’m looking at the SST Lube Cube. Searches for coolant seems to turn up only spindle coolant. Does anyone know what would be required/possible to control coolant/air for a job so I wouldn’t need to manually control it? Would I need a 12V solenoid? Is that supported via OF/Masso/Vectric?
Hey Todd,
workpiece coolant is a standard on cnc machines. You can attach different systems to your machine(s). See them at your favorite CNC parts suppliers, e.g.:
Workpiece coolant is controlled by the standard g-code commands:
-
M7 - turn mist coolant on.
M8 - turn flood coolant on.
M9 - turn both M7 and M8 off.
(Official RS-274 NGC G-code. Note that these commands can also be used for other purposes) depending on what you attach to the M7 / M8 control ports (“Load-1” and “Load-2” pins of 25-pin I/O port on buildbotics.com, e.g. vacuum control)
See also
2 Likes
See my post about brass carving:
3 Likes
Here’s a previous thread on misters Mister Setup for milling Aluminum? - #4 by Mikejsmith1985
Perform a search for flood cooling or mister cooling and you’ll find more.
1 Like
You may want to source a different coolant. According to The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), IPA has a flash point of 53 F CDC - NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards - Isopropyl alcohol.
I’ve used NAPA Cutting and Grinding Oil https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/WLD7651526 for milling aluminum with great success. It’s available in other sizes than that shown in the link.
I hope this helps.
Eric
You bring up a valid point. I can’t recall exactly where I first heard about using IPA for metal carving on a CNC, but the biggest advantage is definitely the lack of cleanup, with no residual oil or risk of damaging wooden jigs or the spoilboard.
I’d be open to trying oil-based solutions if I can find a way to manage the oily residue and securely mount the workpiece. Given that most CNC machines aren’t designed for full “flood” coolant or lubrication setups, it’s tricky—especially since the workpieces I typically deal with are often round or irregularly shaped. Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions on how to handle this?
1 Like
Post deleted by poster
Although I’ve not built it yet, I plan on making a tray out of solid surface material. It can be mounted to the spoil board via double sided tape or with clamping tabs and can use thread inserts for mounting the part inside the tray.
1 Like
Bummer. I was considering IPA. I was thinking of a setup similar to what you’ve mentioned, @DizzyG. While it’s just another hurdle when mounting, it could have additional benefits, like a tall-ish wall around it to contain chip flyout. I’ve read that coolant is also helpful with plastic and I enjoy milling HDPE which is a wicked mess, so something a bit module (or two single-purpose)…
Just to clarify, I’ve not done “flood” cooling, only “mist” and it uses very little solution.
1 Like
And I haven’t done anything, so there! 
I have the lube cube on order, so yet another topic to learn by trial and error.
Sigh. I haven’t even used my laser or my 4th axis yet!
I’ve installed an SST Lube cube on my machine. It works wonderfully.
Some kind of solenoid is required to allow G-code to turn off and on the coolant.
In my case, have a PwnCNC ATC, which graciously provides an unused pre-wired pneumatic solenoid. So making it work on the Masso side was as simple as assigning the output.
SST sells solenoids, which I originally bought for this. I accidentally bought the 12V solenoid, but Masso uses 24V. So I couldn’t use it. Had I purchased the right solenoid from SST, it would have been very easy to set up.
Masso has a nice little “FLOOD” button to control flood on/off on the F2 (?) screen. There is no “MIST” button. I had originally assigned the “Flood” output to the mist system and the button worked well to manually turn mist on and off. I have since put an external button assigned correctly to control the mist on and mist off functions.
The most time consuming part was creating an aluminum bracket to secure the spindle head. The system comes with a magnetic block, but I didn’t like that solution.
1 Like
1 Like