I have never used a mister, what is the advantage, and disadvantage, Is it ok to have a lot of atomised coolant in the air of a workshop? I've only ever used flood coolant, or oil from an oil can.
The whole point of coolant is to dissipate heat. Any time the coolant is finely divided (mist) there's much more coolant surface area exposed to conduct that heat. So misting is basically more efficient at getting the heat away.
If you look at the big NC machines, they all have massive cooling systems because they're going flat-out every chance they get. So they build the machines with lots of shielding and sealed doors to try to keep the coolant (and chips) under control. They run coolant like a commercial dishwasher under glass. Even THEN, the air is full of atomized coolant.
I don't know of any studies condemning the hazards of "second hand mist" so whether or not it's "ok to have a lot" is up to you, I suppose. Surely all the alphabet agencies have weighed in on this, by now. In the old days, nobody knew or cared. I just know the more chips you move, the more crap will be in the air. Of course, one machine outputs far less airborne material that a dozen machines. So your shop will be markedly different from a big place.
And that's the catch: even without misting, you're putting a lot of atomized chemical in the air! Trusty ol' oil-flood coolant puts a lot of particulate and vapor into the air just from splashing. Oil-drip causes more smoke. The water based milk-coolants all splash, likewise. So i've not seen a coolant of any type that will not find it's way into the air in some amount directly proportional to the amount of chips you move.
What seems to keep it down is keeping spindle speed down. That's what i tend to do. I've had my fill of "high speed" environments. Production shops can't do this, of course. They have to turn everything up to 11. But i've seen lots of youtube vids where guys run the cutter twice or three-times as fast as I would and send smoke, chips, splashes, and vapors everywhere. Often from only a few drops of oil. I use lots of oil and take my time, because i'm a hobbyist now. Truth be told, my motors probably out-gas more than my cutting does.
Wrat
