A interesting way to cool your bits.

[knight_toolworks]

I found these and it would be a great way to cool your bits and with materials that like to melt
http://www.vortec.com/ look at the vortex tube and guns. the gun would be nice but it uses 15cfm's the smallest unit uses 4cfms. these would really keep bits cool. make cutting aluminum easily.

[Brady Watson]

Steve,
These have been discussed many times in the past...they are a bit pricey. You might want to make your own that just uses compressed air. It works well when cutting metals.

-B

[donchapman]

Raymond Chapman has one that I've seen and it's amazing how the air coming out of the device is so cool, much cooler than air coming out of my big air compressor at comparable pressure. It seems like some sort of magic trick, but I'm sure it's just physics.

I've not used one, but I'd like to try one to cut soft stone or metal without the liquid mess of water cooling. With stone, you'd have to catch most of the dust with a dust collector if possible.

If anyone has done so, please tell us how well it worked on stone, including how you dealt with the stone dust.

[br928]

I have been using a Vortec Cold Air Gun for years. The magnetic base make it easy to move around to get where you need it and store out of the way when not using it. The worst part is the water condensing on the flexable nozzle with our high humidity here in the south and dripping onto the work. I have been using it lately while machining 1/4" and 1/2" Aluminum with a Super O bit.

[knight_toolworks]

now they claim the gun needs 15cfm's but they don't say how many psi. the gun looks like the best way to go but but getting that much air would be a pain.

[br928]

Vortec coolers are air hogs. I run mine at 60PSI but don't know the CFM consumption at that pressure. I have a 5HP 3PH compressor and it cycles pretty regularly when running the cold air gun. On average 3/4 of the air is expelled as hot air and 1/4 in the cold air stream . The colder you want it that ratio will change inversely. This is not an inexpensive way to cool things off.

[joe]

Me too!

A Vortec tube can prolong bit life in some situation. With the kind of work we do, it's not used in very often however. Since I've taken Onrud's feed and speed rates to heart, my bits seldom heat up.

When a bit is traveling through material at the proper rate, it doesn't need to overheat. There are materials however, where a cool tube really helps. One example is when carving thick Extira. The chips left behind is more like heavy wet dust and a the Vortec comes in handy. Also in this case it helps get the dust off the surface and into the vac-pickup.

The way they work is kind of majic. The pressured up air comes out ice cold.

[bcammack]

We're about to experiment with simply plumbing a piece of copper tubing across the top of the dust collector foot and pointing down through the bit hole to shoot some compressed air at the bit. Even if the cooling effect is marginal, I'm hoping the blast of air will help scour the kerf so the fine powder will get cleaned out by the vacuum.

[Brady Watson]

There's no doubt the Vortex cooler is useful, but in reality it does eat up a lot of air and the basic unit is expensive. You could make your own setup with basic pnuematic parts using just air cooling & if you decided that the temp differenitial wasn't enough, take an oil injector/mister and add denatured alky to the reservoir. You will have frost on the bit...It doesn't take much alky to cool things down. Just a very fine mist that evaportates nearly immediately. It's the evaporation of the alky that causes the cooling. Unless you are cutting thick AL day in and day out, there is little need for a Vortex cooler on a SB...

-B

[joewino]

Don, that Vortex cooler belonged to Joe Crumley -I was just borrowing it for a test run. For some reason, he wanted it back and I had to ship it back to Oklahoma.

I did send him a bill for having it in my storage all that time, but I doubt that I'll see any money. Cheap Okie.

[joe]

Cooling down bits, isn't a bad idea.

I'm real happy with my Vortec. It only runs for a short periods of time, so it's doesn't run up the electirc bill any that I can tell.

A copper tube from your air supply is a good old technique. You may wish to start there first. On long runs you will notice the bits last longer.