Hi all. I got my machine back in June of '23 and took my time building it. I’ve been slowly working through issues that come up and more than anything, learning how to generate good CAM files. It’s definitely taken some time to learn, dialing in bit specs and breaking plenty of 1/16" endmills in the process. I actually still don’t have any good settings for 1/32" endmills, I just immediately snap every one I try
My question for all you wise experienced machinists out there… What is your solution for cleaning up the chips? For fun, here’s a pic after one of four operations on one part.
My method so far has been to use an old 2" paint brush to sweep all the chips to the front into a pile, let them sit for a few hours so most of the coolant drains out, and then scoop with an old dustpan into a 30 gallon shop bin. I’ve been keeping the shavings and cut offs in the bin as I figured I could recycle them when it’s full. I just wondered if somebody had a better method for removal? One of the biggest problems I have is reaching to the rear drains and down the sides of the y-rails to get it cleaned up without pulling the side windows, which takes too long for me to want to do often…
Wet/Dry Vacuum with a round brush end. I like it, and it is much faster for me. I used to spray coolant all over from my spray attachment, but the vacuum is better for me in the end—just my two cents.
1st and foremost I let my chips sit overnight at least before I clean out the machine. I want to the chips as dry as possible. Then I a homebrew spatula that I use to bring the bulk of the chips forward so I can put them into the proper recycle bin . Then after I will go in with a shop vac and a brush on the end to finish it off. If I am running the same material example 6061 I may not do a deep clean. However, if I do switch materials then I do a deep clean so I don’t cross contaminate my chips. I don’t worry about the chips that go into the shop vac, I just toss those in the trash.
I vacuum first with a 16 gallon shop vac - the big hose is the key (giggity). Then i wash down everything, walls and all. Then i usually vacuum again, wet chips be damned.
i normally remove a side window and hose down and brush out. I really wish i poured the epoxy to drain towards the front to make it easier to clean. If i am cutting steel i try to clean it out that day as rust starts. if alu it can wait a few days
I’ve looked over at my wet/dry vac several times as I use it on my woodworking cnc with a dust shoe, and I’ve tried to come up with a way to use it alongside the flood coolant without sucking up all the coolant. I don’t know why I didn’t think about grabbing it to suck up shavings after the coolant had drained out….
@paranoid56 You know, my machine tends to always drain to the rear left corner, I’ve wonder before about just shimming it out of level by rasing the rear and see if that threw the machine off any? I’d assume once the concrete is set and epoxy is poured, the machine wouldn’t have to stay perfectly level….But then again I wasn’t sharp enough to vacuum up shavings
I bought a $4.00 squeegee from walrmat and cut it down to 4" wide. scoop what I can and wet/dry vac the rest. The squeegee will get all of the coolant up as well.
I wait until next morning when chips are drier and use a shop vac with a cyclone separator.
ALL the chips, regardless of size, stay in the 5 gal bucket and nothing gets to the shop vac. Before the cyclone I was constantly having to change filters, now its perfectly clean in there.
What happens if you use it without waiting until the next morning?
I was looking at making my own cyclone because there seems to be a difference in separating particles from air and particles from liquid and I couldn’t find one specifically for the latter. My goal would be to hook it directly to the drain and suction it all out, with the separation.
Yes, it does. A standard carpet vacuum works very well too and I use that when I need to. However, I’d much rather have my robot vacuum handle it most of the time.
so i put a container (just a small tote I had laying around the shop) inside my coolant tote. The big drain hoses dump into that, and that overflows into the LS tank. gravity does its thing, just like a pool skimmer works. whatever or particles are in the coolant when it comes down the drain stays in this 1st tub. not sure if that explanation makes any sense but it works. If you want a pic I can snap one tomorrow.
re: vacuuming when they are still wet, not an issue, we sometimes do it wet when the chips are just too much to keep working. just preference. they seem to vacuum easier when dry, but I’m just using a little 4 gallon shop vac, nothing super powerful.
re: robot vacuum, we we joking today about waterproofing an RC wheel loader or dozer to push chips around during machining…
I’ve seen what you are describing and that works well too. I’m planning on using that kind of setup until I figure out the fancy cyclone one. Incremental efficiency progress is my goal.
