Finding out the hard way why we use coolant on stainless

A few months back, an older guy I respect told me to run a stainless job dry because 'that's how he always did it.' I did it his way and the insert shattered at hour 2, $85 gone in one second. He just shrugged and said 'some lessons cost money.' Has anyone else gotten advice from the old-timers that went against the manual?

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abby_singh13d ago

Ran into the same thing with 304 a while back. Old timer told me to push the speed way up and skip the coolant because he swore it made the chips fly better. First part looked fine, second part smoked, third insert was toast before lunch. What fixed it for me was keeping a steady stream of coolant right on the cut and backing off the speed a bit. Pain in the neck having to clean up the mess after, but the inserts last way longer and the finish is night and day. That old guy's advice might have worked on whatever machine and tooling he ran 30 years ago, but my setup is not his setup. Lesson learned, I trust the book now and just use my ears and eyes to adjust from there.

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charlesb4213d ago

Did the old timer also tell you to hold your breath the whole time?

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