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My lead and I butted heads on coolant use for stainless steel

He runs it dry to avoid mess, but I swear by flood cooling for heat control. Who's got the right idea here?

3 comments

3 Comments

Wait, he's running stainless steel dry? That's a good way to ruin your tool life and work harden the material. You definitely want flood coolant for the heat.

adams.taylor1mo ago

Your lead is throwing money away on inserts. Flood it, the heat from dry cutting wrecks the edge way faster.

nathanh751mo ago

Completely agree with both of you. That heat buildup is the real killer. It doesn't just wear the insert out faster, it changes the steel's structure right at the cut. You end up fighting a hardened skin on the next pass, which just makes everything worse. Using flood coolant pulls that heat away instantly and washes the chips out too. It protects your tool and keeps the part from getting stressed. Saving a few bucks on coolant ends up costing a lot more in ruined inserts and scrapped work.