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Vegetable Oils as Cutting Fluids in Mist Coolant Systems.

AidanWeber

Plastic
Joined
Jan 17, 2019

My shop owns a JET "Bridgeport Style" Mill which we have fitted a "FogBuster" Mist Coolant system to. We ran out of coolant and havent had time to order the concentrate for a refill. Instead we've been making do with a hand pumped coolant bottle. Rather than purchasing MQL Cooolant for our Mist system the FogBuster website claims "FogBuster offers a wide range of coolant and air flows, will spray virtually any type of coolant or lubricant, and its unique high volume low pressure design operates on only 10 to 20 PSI."

My mentor and I are discussing how valid that claim is. As well as if we could use vegetable or mineral oil in our system. We are considering Canola, Safflower, Avocado, etc because of their high smoke points. Canola smokes at 400°F, Safflower at 510°F, and Avocado at 520°F. I have also considered mineral oils.

These are my concerns. I have no doubt that the system will pump the coolant mediums. But I do worry about the oil burning and "gumming" a tool or releasing carcinogenic smoke. As well as the film that it leaves on the machine and its components afterwards. Also the efficacy of the oils as cooling/cutting fluids.

Thoughts? Articles? Or Experiences?

Thank you for your time,
-AidanWeber
 
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burning vegetable oil most likely creates many bad or dangerous fumes too. just cause its natural dont mean its harmless.
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mushrooms are natural and many are extremely toxic.
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i would worry about residue, sticky fluids can be difficult to clean
 
"Practical Machinist's" purchase ready made loob, and get the knowhow
and reputation from the vendor.

They work, and work well, get on with the job at hand.

"Harry Homeshop" types play around endlessly.

Please try over at hobby-machinist.com where they have ongoing debates over all
manner of household products being used for loob including prestone…..
 
Cooking oil will go rancid when open to the air. I would suspect in under a week the smell will be noticeable. Bacteria and molds will soon grow in the organic oil.
Bill D
 
Straight oil of any common type will not cool nearly as effectively as a water/coolant mix. The lubricity may go up, but the cooling will go down. Its difficult to quantify exactly because with added lubricity heat generation is usually reduced a bit. Not much beats water for cost and cooling effect.
 
Using vegetable oil is a very viable solution for MQL applications although I wouldn't recommend breathing the vapors. Back in the 90's I ran a Yasda that did not come with any coolant tank but it did come with a MQL system for high speed machining in steels. It used about a gallon a month. Worked a blast, no pun intended, and tool life went up as did surface finish. You would want to run it at the lowest setting as far as oil consumption goes. I also have a white paper that explains the benefits of using different oils and such in an MQL system. If someone cares to email me I will send it to them since we can't upload PDF's here.

Paul
 
I has a Cool Mist system for a while. It did work, but filled the shop with a fog bank, necessitating a respirator. Went to drip/flood coolant using soluble oil, been using it ever since.
 
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Many years ago the shop owner I worked for bought Trico brand misters that used some some kind of oil. Looked like cooking oil,But I don't know exactly what it was. Not one to try out, but one for every mill. Filled the shop full of smoke, burnt up all kinds of tooling and left a sticky residue everywhere. I bitched about them and got bitched back at. Eventually we managed to get them switched back over to spray mist coolant.
 
Veggie oil = stink...rancid...flies...etc.

In a pinch.yeah...but for constant use, I don’t think so. Wouldn’t be my choice. Lots of better choices in my opinion
 
Actually, there is no rancidity from MQL with vegetable oil. If you are clouding up the place you are using too much oil versus air. When I used it, after 8-10 hours of running a mold core or cavity, you could barely tell the part had oil on it, no droplets, just a fine sheen. Studies done have shown marked improvement in tool life, surface finish and productivity. Actually, coconut oil and sunflower oil showed even better performance than vegetable oil. I wish I could upload the PDF I have. I know I had very good results with it but reading this doc was an eye opener. Some medical manufacturers are now requiring it since water soluble oils have proven to contaminate implants. Now, I'm not sure I would recommend it on an open machine like the OP but inside a CNC, no problem. Keep in mind too, that the "special" oil manufacturers are out to make money from their product. I have no problem with that but to simply say it can't work is disingenuous. I have seen it and back then, this was the only way you could buy a Yasda for milling steels and hard milling.
 
Veggie oil also oxidizes to a sticky varnish and is damned difficult to remove.

Found this out the hard way on a leased machine. It took many days to clean the vegetable oil off it. Latest research on vaping injuries and deaths says it is the vitamin E oil that is the primary cause.
I use the Trico micro drop system and mineral oil. Keep the delivery lean and that expensive oil will last for years.
 








 
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