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I finally figured out why my finish passes were coming out rough
Spent the better part of two days trying to chase down a weird chatter mark on a aluminum part I was running for a repeat customer. Checked the feeds, the speeds, even swapped out the tool holder thinking it was worn out. Turned out the coolant nozzle was just a hair out of alignment and not hitting the cut right. Adjusting it maybe 10 degrees fixed the whole thing and now the surface finish is mirror smooth again. Makes me feel dumb that I wasted about 4 hours total on something so simple. Any of you guys had a tiny thing like that cost you a bunch of time?
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the_terry6d ago
Had a buddy spend half a shift swapping out coolant because he thought it was going bad, but it was just a chip clogging the nozzle. Did you check the pressure after you moved the nozzle?
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Did you check the coolant concentration after you moved the nozzle? @the_terry is onto something with the pressure thing but I've seen it happen where moving the nozzle changes how the mix settles and suddenly your coolant is too watery. Makes the finish go bad in a whole different way. That alignment thing is brutal though because you don't think to look at it until you've ruled out everything else. It felt like the machine was cursed until I walked around and just watched the cut for a few minutes. That's what gave it away for me seeing the stream break up instead of staying solid on the tool.
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