Spent 3 years flipping my air blast the wrong way on the mill

I was running a Haas VF-2 in a shop in Toledo and kept getting tool chatter on the same finish passes. Thought it was the holder or speeds. Last week a senior guy walks by, watches for 10 seconds, and goes 'you're blowing chips back into the cut.' Switched the nozzle to blow away from the toolpath and it's night and day. Anyone else have a basic setup detail someone had to finally point out?

2 comments

2 Comments

mark_mitchell12d ago

Dude it's just compressed air not rocket science calm down.

elliotm7012d ago

And hey @mark_mitchell, it's not rocket science but it's also not obvious to everyone starting out. The thing with compressed air is direction matters a lot more than people think. I had a similar thing where I was blowing chips toward the vise and they'd bounce right back into the cut. A guy I worked with at a shop near Detroit showed me how to aim the nozzle to push chips past the spindle instead of under it. Makes a bigger difference than you'd guess, especially on aluminum where chips love to weld back on.