584,830 active members*
5,831 visitors online*
Register for free
Login
Results 1 to 3 of 3
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    55

    Air jets added under quill.

    I got fed up of having to brush or blow the chips away from the cutter- so I decided to make some thing a little more permanent.

    I used some push fit fittings (4mm), some 4mm copper pipe, some copper welding tips and some soft copper shim.

    The biggest problems were getting all the stuff under the quill, make the air jets directional, and mounting it easily.

    This is what I came up with- not perfect at all, but better than trying to blow or brush the chips manually.

    I used a CAD drawing as it made the tube bending much easier to start the bends in just the right places and cut the tubes to just the right length.



    Bent and assembled.


    Its pretty easy- the only thing I did was to turn down the body of the welding tips so they fit into the 4mm Tee sockets.

    I can now direct the jets (0.6mm) towards the tool tip by rotating the whole Tee joints (not just the welding tips).

    You'll notice that I used 3 jets- I considered that this was a good compromise to get the air into whatever slot direction the tool was moving in.

    I made some copper shim tabs to go under three of the bolts at the bottom of the quill, and bending these around the tube held the assembly in place.



    I have a toggle switch mounted on the control panel of the machine that switches the air on for a "blast" of air or continuous flow.
    On the back of the electrical panel I mounted a couple of solenoid valves.

    I have kind of added a whole 12vdc circuit to the machine- I purchased a simple 12v plug in power supply- and with this I power my LED light bank fitted under the bridge, and also I use it now to power these solenoids.



    The air supply comes via a regulator so I can adjust the pressure supplied to the nozzles- I don't like to use much air because the chips go everywhere, so I adjust to clear the tool and no more.

    The second solenoid valve is to provide a supply of cutting fluid. It comes out as a mist with the air if I flick its toggle switch on too.

    My cutting fluid sits in a garden wand spray pump bottle that I had kicking around.
    I took off the pressure relief valve and made an adaptor to supply compressed air into the bottle, then screwed the relief valve onto that.
    That way my compressor can't over charge the spray bottle.



    There is a bit of a mess of pipe connections at the cutter end as I bring the air and liquid together. I also added a flow regulator to the end of the fluid line so I could adjust the liquid flow.
    You can see it all 3 pictures above. I lashed it to the arm of the quill plate.
    So I've got misting nozzles now, if I want.

    There are a couple of problems so far.
    1) I think the 0.6mm holes are too big- there is just too much air coming out.
    2)The mist comes out of two nozzles much better than the third.

    My plan is to pull out the welding tips and slip INSIDE each one the needle end of a tiny liquid dispensing needle (disposable blunt tube things that fit onto syringes).
    The sizes are such that a 0.3mm tube will fit through a 0.6mm welding tip. That should allow me to experiment with problem 1.

    I'm hoping to up the pressure a bit and get less, but faster, air.

    This should also help distribute the fluid better in the manifold (problem 2).

    I think I will need to add an inline filter to stop crap blocking the nozzles.

    I have to wait a few days for the syringe tips to arrive so I'll post the results when its all fixed up.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    84

    Re: Air jets added under quill.

    Good ideas. I already have a mist coolant setup, but a second line with just air would be good for plastics and some sheet copper stuff I cut.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    55

    Re: Air jets added under quill.

    My fluid dispenser tips arrived and I cut them off their plastic mount:



    I then super glued them into the copper weld tips and put it all back together.







    A couple of things to note:

    the new small outlets require a little more pressure to get chip clearing power at the tip, but use less air in the process.

    I fitted a non return valve to the fluid line as the extra back pressure caused by the small outlets pushed air back up the fluid pipe.

    I fitted an inline filter to stop the small outlets getting blocked.

    I fitted a second pressure regulator to the fluid side so that I could run it at a higher pressure than the air jets- that way I always get a positive flow.

    Fluid comes out more evenly from the tips now.

Similar Threads

  1. Gear Rack Cleaning Jets.
    By PHSS in forum Torchmate
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 08-16-2011, 09:13 PM
  2. Angel Machinery Distributing Jet Edge Water Jets in Wisconsin
    By Jetedge in forum News Announcements
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 09-13-2010, 09:52 PM
  3. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-20-2009, 03:16 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •