Cutting coolant slots in old style table???

Hi,

My 4020 has two large holes for coolant to drain from table. These get plugged up from chips all the time. Newer machines have slots running toward the back. Im considering plugging my holes and cutting the back of the table out to make it like the new style. See pics for the difference. Anybody ever done this? Guessing it should still be plenty strong with a hole and a slot right? Any thoughts on if its safe to do this?

Assuming it is safe, any suggestions on most efficient way of doing this? Would have to be done by hand of course, not removing table and bringing it to another shop or anything. I dont mind finishing with die grinder and rotary burr but what about getting bulk of material out? Thanks.

Mark

I don't see why not. Cast Iron is stable and shouldn't warp on you. Break out the sawzall and deburring tools. If it were my machine I wouldn't use a grinder. I don't want all that abrasive sneaking in to the ways and coolant pump.

You should be able to reach the center of the slot on a 4020. Fadal did starting milling them out before they changed the casting pattern. The end of the table there only supports the way cover and does not have any turcite under it.

Thanks for the suggestions. Would be awesome if i could reach but the table is 48" long. The slot starts at about 22" from center so its out of reach. I heard that they cut the tables with there own spindles, not sure how this works. If they used a gigantic face mill to make up the difference it would be hard to have seamless overlaps. I wonder how they do it?

I decided to go ahead and mod my table. I drilled a series of holes across the bottom on the back and sawed down to meet the holes to rough it out. Cleaned it all up with die grinder and then pressed in plug and blended that with die grinder. Turned out great. Im sure this will save me alot of frustration with chips in the future.

Good job murray nice.

Wondering how they cut the tables. Fadal uses custom made cutters for cutting the table flatness and then scraping(the half moons) Here are the videos of both. The tools can be extremely dangerous in the spindle.Never leave them in the spindle. And the cutting and scraping programs are in the service programs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlaLyfUBfKs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FwTAEv8_EQ

Does anyone have a 3D model of this tool? Or guide