Today I spent some time at my shop working on manufacturing a small batch of machined plates with tapped holes in them. I found my bottleneck to be whenever the plates are partially machined and I need to set them aside for a secondary process. It's kind of difficult for me to get all the little chips out of the holes and away from the plates so they don't get scratched up. All I have is an air gun and paper towels for this. It worked ok enough, but it really slowed my times down. Would a parts cleaning station do the trick for something like this? Just unclamp the aluminum plate from the vice and give it a couple of good dunks in some kind of solvent and call it good?
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a quick way to get oil and chips removed from parts?
- Thread starter F14
- Start date
- Replies 21
- Views 2,302
I use cardboard. if need be I have a 5 gal bucket of soap(my tumbler soap) and water then blow them off. if there small blind holes you need to blow each one out with pin air nozzles no way around it.
Only thing I use paper towels for in the shop is to clean my glass's and inspection plates.
if there big plates wont fit in 5 gal bucket. find someplace you can spray them off with a hose then blow off and stack between Cardboard
Phil in Montana
Stainless
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2007
- Location
- Missoula Mt
I use a Mart parts washer, a old dish washer would work , Is your wife home??If not ....Phil
The cardboard sounds like a good idea. I bet the corrugated layers would act as a cushion as well.
She already complains that I smell like WD40 whenever I get home, lol.
cyanidekid
Titanium
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2016
- Location
- Brooklyn NYC
A commercial/institutional dishwashing prewash spray head. Spray first with detergent.
Follow with 10-15 min. In an ultrasonic openings down. Rinse, dry. Done!
Follow with 10-15 min. In an ultrasonic openings down. Rinse, dry. Done!
Blow gun with 3/16" brake line for a nozzle, (bend a 90 in it for ergonomics).
Add an inverted funnel as a cone to keep chip flying down, or add shop vac
to suck the chips away as the nozzle dislodges them.
OSAWA&COMPANY/SUPPORT & SERVICES/What's Wonder-Gun Hole Cleaning model?
or:
OSAWA&COMPANY/PRODUCTS/ Wonder-Gun W101-YZ
APD
Stainless
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- Nov 5, 2005
- Location
- Hudson Valley, NY
Finegrain
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
This is in a VMC then? Might try one of those (Lang?) fan thingys that you put in a toolholder, and run it along the part after drilling and tapping. I bet it makes a helluva mist, but might get most or maybe even all of the chips out of the holes.
You are form tapping, right? That eliminates the long stringers that are harder to get out than drill swarf.
Regards.
Mike
You are form tapping, right? That eliminates the long stringers that are harder to get out than drill swarf.
Regards.
Mike
theperfessor
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2011
- Location
- Southern Indiana USA
Or use a spiral flute tap to have the chips self-extract.
Finegrain
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
True, for the hole just tapped only though. If he has 100's of holes in each part, decent chance that hole #184's chips fall into hole #142, etc.
Hmmm, having said that, are you keeping an eye on chips from the drilling op getting into previously drilled holes and possibly jamming the tap when it comes through? Might want to take an Op Stop after the drilling and eyeball what has accumulated in the holes.
Regards.
Mike
Finegrain
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
Another thought, and this is still assuming it's being done in a VMC ...
Make sure your coolant jets are aimed to shoot directly into the holes so they have a chance at flushing the hole prior to tapping. I know some guys just aim the coolant jets sort of in the vicinity of the cut to make sure some coolant ends up there. I'm a little OCD about getting the coolant jets pointed right at the point of cut.
Regards.
Mike
Make sure your coolant jets are aimed to shoot directly into the holes so they have a chance at flushing the hole prior to tapping. I know some guys just aim the coolant jets sort of in the vicinity of the cut to make sure some coolant ends up there. I'm a little OCD about getting the coolant jets pointed right at the point of cut.
Regards.
Mike
theperfessor
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2011
- Location
- Southern Indiana USA
Agree 100% that the when using a spiral flute tap the chips from tapping one hole can get into another, but it makes it easier to clear them off because they are generally at the top of the hole not the bottom. Form tapping would be better, and a stop to permit blowing out blind holes after drilling/before tapping is a good idea also.
J_R_Thiele
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Location
- Columbia Missouri
For a low cost approach try a 18 gallon tote or a trash can and an inexpensive garden sprayer filled with soapy water. How often you pump controls the pressure. You can control the spray pattern by adjusting the nozzle.
Actually, this is being done on a CNC knee mill. I am using a Tapmatic to shoot the threads for me. It's running a spiral flute tap which does a nice job of getting the chips out of the hole.
The way I finish the plate is to run my face mill across the top to clean up the surface after all the drilling and tapping have been done so the customer does not see those nasty swirly designs around the holes from chips off the drill bits. The trouble comes with the Tapmatic having about 5 inches of stick out which basically forces me to have to run that process on its own program and not integrate it in with the others because I must drop the knee to get enough headspace. So, what I have been doing is face milling the bottoms of all the plates first, then loading another program where I run a #7 drill bit, the 1/4" drill bit for the alignment pins and then the chamfer mill. each plate I will perform the tool changes for each plate so I do not have to dismount the plate. Then, when its time for the tapping work, I drop the knee, load the program, pop in the Tapmatic, get my Z height, and then proceed to tap the holes for each plate.
I have just found that the tapping will produce a fair amount of little stringy curly cues that like to fly everywhere. every time the op finishes, I blow off the plate, dismount it from the vice and then I place it on top of some paper towels and proceed to air blast the living daylights out of it until my OCD is satisfied. Then I blast off the vice surface and check really well for any little chips. Then, I load up the next plate and repeat the process... That whole air blasting and cleaning thing are taking me just as long to do as my tapping operation.
Here is a video of that:
YouTube
As can be seen in the video, a lot of these little curly chips go everywhere.
No VMC for me, Im just a little one guy shop right now
Just me and my BP R2E3.
The way I finish the plate is to run my face mill across the top to clean up the surface after all the drilling and tapping have been done so the customer does not see those nasty swirly designs around the holes from chips off the drill bits. The trouble comes with the Tapmatic having about 5 inches of stick out which basically forces me to have to run that process on its own program and not integrate it in with the others because I must drop the knee to get enough headspace. So, what I have been doing is face milling the bottoms of all the plates first, then loading another program where I run a #7 drill bit, the 1/4" drill bit for the alignment pins and then the chamfer mill. each plate I will perform the tool changes for each plate so I do not have to dismount the plate. Then, when its time for the tapping work, I drop the knee, load the program, pop in the Tapmatic, get my Z height, and then proceed to tap the holes for each plate.
I have just found that the tapping will produce a fair amount of little stringy curly cues that like to fly everywhere. every time the op finishes, I blow off the plate, dismount it from the vice and then I place it on top of some paper towels and proceed to air blast the living daylights out of it until my OCD is satisfied. Then I blast off the vice surface and check really well for any little chips. Then, I load up the next plate and repeat the process... That whole air blasting and cleaning thing are taking me just as long to do as my tapping operation.
Here is a video of that:
YouTube
As can be seen in the video, a lot of these little curly chips go everywhere.
No VMC for me, Im just a little one guy shop right now
Just me and my BP R2E3.I would really like to try the form tapping. the trouble is that my tapping head says that if I form tap with it, then I must downsize the tap size to 10-24 and I cannot do it with 1/4-20. Swapping tapping heads would be really expensive for me to do. Those things are not cheap and last month I found out just how easy it can be to wipe out a tapping head.
Oh Wow! That's a really interesting way to get rid of chips. I've never seen anything like that before.
I actually have one of those things in the shop. I use it to spray Kool Mist at my chop saw when cutting aluminum. Perhaps I can get another one and just fill it with that soapy water. those things are no more than $10 or $15 bucks from what I can remember.
