Showerthought: coolant flow rate ain't the flex everybody thinks it is
I keep seeing guys on here bragging about running their coolant wide open at 80 psi and calling it flood cooling, but I've run the same 4140 job at 22 psi for 6 months now and my tool life went up about 30 percent. More flow doesn't cool the cut better if half the coolant never reaches the pocket, it just floods the chip tray and sprays the door. I watched a guy in our shop in Cleveland burn through 4 inserts in one shift at full pressure because the stream was blasting past the tool and missing the edge entirely. Aiming the nozzle and dialing pressure down to where the chips clear clean is what actually helps, not cranking the valve. I checked my insert costs for the quarter after the switch and saved around $210 on that one job. What pressure are you all actually running, and did you ever test lower and get surprised?