Hi all Nomads-
I’ve made an ‘airblaster’ for my Classic Nomad, which I am VERY happy with<tinyurl.com/yawgpo7e>.
Following on from <tinyurl.com/ychy83wn> I’d like to know if an alcohol mist/lubricant blaster would further improve on aluminium cutting precision/quality. Does anyone have any experience and implemented designs?
Best.
-Peter
JPL Richard did a wd-40 drip for the shapeoko. Seemed to work pretty good. I’m not sure it will help with precision, but might make you be able to push the machine a bit more.
If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend the single flute for aluminium. Winston mentioned it a few times in videos, and I had to order something else and figured I’d pick one up. Wall finish from the tool is pretty amazing. You might want to do finish pass on flat surfaces with a flat endmill, but otherwise that bit is pretty great.
Wd40 works very well and will make a big difference in aluminum finishing. Not sure alcohol is ideal simply because it doesn’t have the same lubricity and the Nomad really doesn’t have the power/rpm to create lots of heat.
A nice setup would be a wd40 drip with solenoid/relay controlled by the A3 pin. That way you could leave it off during roughing and turn it on for finishing with g code automatically.
https://community.carbide3d.com/t/controlling-external-devices-with-machine/18362
Just a note of caution. Alcohol is potentially a fire hazard. Perhaps even WD40 is a fire hazard as well but since others have used it it may not instantly blow up. Just keep a extinguisher close by when running with any potentially burnable fluids.
Thanks much everybody. Will try wd40 Drip on my classic Nomad. Have bought a set of single 
te end Mills, as well. Stay safe. -P
Alcohol works great on aluminum. For the quantities you would use, it’s not a significant fire hazard.
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