The only DRO system that I have seen that is completely waterproof and can in fact be used underwater, are the latest Newall read heads. A set of 3 would most probably set you back a couple of grand. But they are rather good.
The normal glass read heads can be bought with very good covers for them. So if they are mounted in the correct positions (NOT upside down or the open side facing the coolant flow), you don't really have to worry about swarf or moisture penetration, they do a fairly good job of keeping it all out, but I wouldn't guarantee them keeping out a direct blast from a flood coolant nozzle.
Is coolant required?
In my opinion, yes.
Not only will your tooling stay sharper for longer, they will last a lot longer as well. You will also find that surface finishes improve dramatically if you can keep the tool cool and get a bit of lube on there as well. Don't use full flood coolant, that is for the big boys, instead, using a small dribble will keep the tooling very happy.
If you have air in your shop, then you might consider a spray lube system, they use a combination of air to keep the tooling cool and a very fine mist of coolant oil for lubrication. You can adjust these to very low consumption rates, so that you could just have a total loss system, and do a quick wipe up at the end of the machining session, rather than having coolant oil dripping everywhere if you used a flood coolant system.
http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2725&category=
I hope this answers your questions.
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The normal glass read heads can be bought with very good covers for them. So if they are mounted in the correct positions (NOT upside down or the open side facing the coolant flow), you don't really have to worry about swarf or moisture penetration, they do a fairly good job of keeping it all out, but I wouldn't guarantee them keeping out a direct blast from a flood coolant nozzle.
Is coolant required?
In my opinion, yes.
Not only will your tooling stay sharper for longer, they will last a lot longer as well. You will also find that surface finishes improve dramatically if you can keep the tool cool and get a bit of lube on there as well. Don't use full flood coolant, that is for the big boys, instead, using a small dribble will keep the tooling very happy.
If you have air in your shop, then you might consider a spray lube system, they use a combination of air to keep the tooling cool and a very fine mist of coolant oil for lubrication. You can adjust these to very low consumption rates, so that you could just have a total loss system, and do a quick wipe up at the end of the machining session, rather than having coolant oil dripping everywhere if you used a flood coolant system.
http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2725&category=
I hope this answers your questions.
Blogs