How bad is it to mill Zirconia wet

richmc2

richmc2

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I know this has been discussed in several places over the years, but we are considering wet milling zirconia, so I am doing my homework, reading every old thread. I am aware of two milling centers who are doing 100% wet milling of zirconia (with water only),one of them drying them in a conveyor pizza oven, etc. They claim 3X tool life and finer details, no chipping, and quicker mill times with wet-optimized cam. I am wondering if attitudes are changing on this topic, or if anyone has any comparison "data" they can share. Any new/additional insights would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
BobCDT

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I would guess that 98-99% of zirconia is milled dry. When milling dry tool cost is well under $1 a unit. I also think there is room to optimize CAM to run faster. I know the AG micro 5 mill mills FZ dry in about 12-13 minutes and it an inexpensive robust mill. The NO CHIPPING part I'm not sure I believe. If you design properly, mill dry and track tool usage you can get chips down to almost none. I know CMC is dry milling FZ in 6 minutes. I'm actually going there next week to check things out.
 
S

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If you have a machine which also mills metal you sure do NOT want to mill zircon wet! Big chance of spores of metal which cause ugly stains. And if not the metal the oil will cause problems after drying.
If you only mill zircon with just water then i advise you to just try it and see for yourself and share the results. There seems to be too little knowledge about this and besides the extra time it consumes i wonder if the smoother surface is really the plus making the effort since you always need to do some surface structuring.


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cnhart@me.com

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the finish on the zirconia units is a HELL of a lot better than ones coming off a roland. its almost glossy immediately post sinter. its just wow.

Wet is awesome. Quiet, fast, clean. I totally agree. I bought a VHF that sits on a desk doing nothing while the wet mill runs all day
Never going dry again.
 
CreDes

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If you mill wet, do not mill emax in the same machine! Your shading will be off because of the emax residue in the water. The zirconia turns out opaque and off color when emax residue is in the water or lines. Trust me. Years of Having a MCXL and ruining lots of zirconia units led to this discovery.
 
MetalMachine

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If you mill wet, do not mill emax in the same machine! Your shading will be off because of the emax residue in the water. The zirconia turns out opaque and off color when emax residue is in the water or lines. Trust me. Years of Having a MCXL and ruining lots of zirconia units led to this discovery.
Interesting. This might explain why my doc had problems with Cerec and zirconia. Have others had similar issues?
 
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