maxb46•15d ago

Old timer told me to skip the coolant and run dry on aluminum, what a mess

I was running a 6061 part at my last job in Cleveland and this guy Dave with 30 years experience said just run it dry, it cuts better. So I tried it on a batch of 50 parts and the finish was garbage, tool chipped after 20, and I spent an hour cleaning chips. But then my supervisor said Dave's trick only works on certain alloys with high feed rates. Anybody else get advice that backfired like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

sam_anderson15d ago

Man, is it really that big of a deal? I mean yeah it sounds annoying but an hour cleaning chips doesn't seem like the end of the world.

henderson.kim15d ago

Had a buddy @sam_anderson who spent 2 hours picking chilis out of his truck seats. Not fun.

leohart11d ago

Funny how one small mess can turn into a whole afternoon project, right @sam_anderson? That's the thing with life though. People always think "oh it's just a little thing" until they're elbow deep in chili flakes at 9 PM wondering where the time went. It's like when you drop a single screw in the garage and suddenly you've spent an hour hunting for it under every shelf and tool box. Little things add up faster than you'd expect.