Chip fans: how well do they work for blind tapped holes?

[dandrummerman21]

Was thinking about asking for a chip fan. Perhaps Lang but I haven't even decided yet.

Running on a 50 taper 600mm horizontal, I am tapping both ends of a long shaft, and have lots to do. We are running a whole bunch of shafts per pallet (more than 50 of them per cycle) and the quantity is pretty high.

The holes are 3/8-16, tapped 3/4 deep, with a drill depth of about 1".

Would the fan be sufficient in getting the coolant out of those holes? Or should I plan on adding a smaller thru coolant drill to blow air through the tool into each hole after tapping? Currently the holes are relatively full of coolant, blowing them out on the loading side makes a hell of a mist, and we wish to not handle the parts again (we are placing them directly into a skid box)

I would also use the fan to blow the sides of the parts off. Just wondering what to expect with the holes.


Also any current recommendations on brand of fan, and perhaps more specifically, what size fan would be best for this. I'm thinking a smaller fan would be better for this application. Perhaps the Lang 160mm one.

Thanks

 

[Orange Vise]

Fans don't do a thorough job on small holes. It helps that it's a horizontal, but the thru-tool air will do a much better job.

The folding fans work the best for everything else.

 

[OVodov]

Can you use forming taps?
So there’s will be no chips.

 

[Ox]

Just stick a pc of 1/4" copper tube in a collet holder, and then go blow your holes out.
Then you'll git sumpthing done.

Or smaller tube if using too much air.
I'm sure that even an 1/8" copper line would blow out coolant.



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[OVodov]

Another option is Thread mill.

 

[13engines]

Some folks aren't paying attention here. It's not chips he's concerned with, it's coolant.

In that light...

I learned something a while back when I cleaned out two large pallet tables that had a 1/2-13 X 2" blind hole grid drilled into them that were all just about plugged solid. Lots of holes. Let's say cleaning and blowing out holes was my life for a day or two.

What I learned was that taking a standard blow gun and blowing it at holes, from any angle and with all the determination you can muster, does nothing compared to an air gun fitted with a small hollow tube brought down to the bottom of the hole and then start blasting from there. There is no comparison to the effectiveness of the one over the other. So much so that any more I consider blowing out holes with a standard blow gun a complete waste of time.

The ideas of a tube or thru coolant drill are good, just as long as you run them in near the bottom and bring them out again. (And it will only take a second) Not sure how you're going to get air thru your thru coolant hose and still maintain thru coolant capability, but I'll leave that up to the OP.

 

[Ox]

Yeah, I guess you would need to find a way to cycle the air purge in stead of the coolant.

The HMC should already have all the hdwr required as I expect that it blows the first layer of coolant out of the holder at toolchange?

If so, you would just need to be able to fire that same SOL without the toolchange.
Just need a spare M code, or cheat off of some other M code output that you are not using.

To be cheap and quick about it, you could just cheat the wire from one output to the other output, so that if either one fires, your SOL fires.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[boosted]

Not sure how you're going to get air thru your thru coolant hose and still maintain thru coolant capability, but I'll leave that up to the OP.

Most new machines have through spindle air and an option. Many have it as a standard option. Two of our machines have both through spindle coolant and through spindle air in addition to flood air.

 

[Mtndew]

The holes are 3/8-16, tapped 3/4 deep, with a drill depth of about 1".

Would the fan be sufficient in getting the coolant out of those holes?

If there aren't any chips at the bottom of the holes it would work. But I think a ball of chips might hinder the outcome.
Although you're on a Horizontal so that's a plus.

 

[dandrummerman21]

Yeah, chips aren't an issue. Using a spiral flute tap, long stringy chips that fly off on retract.

800rpm in, 1600rpm out, and i have TSC through the collet, not the tool, so that helps dislodge the chips off of the tool between holes

Coolant in the holes is my only concern right now.



The machine (Makino A88) has TSC air blast (M77) so I'm going to be adding a drill cycle this morning. I am not sure if it would help, or make any difference either way, to make the drilling cycle rapid in to depth, and feed out (something like G81X0Y0Z.1R-1.F100). I will probably try it both ways and see if there's a difference.

I might still try to get the fan for the rest of the part, even if the holes are solved.