Cutting oil

[Glenn]

What cutting oil would you suggest and why? Can high(er) speed cutting and hand speed cutting use the same cutting oil?

[tecnovist]

Hi --i would get a drill press some old drill bits and try out your cutting oil that you have and see what works best....

[HWooldridge]

There is a lot of info on this in the world of machining - I work in a production lathe shop and get to see this daily. The main purpose of the fluid is to keep the tools or work from burning so the major advantage is cooling. Sulfur is a primary ingredient to provide lubricity so anything you buy with sulfur additives will help on some materials. IIRC, cast iron should be drilled dry but most other materials benefit from some type of cutting fluid. Plain water works pretty well and even better with a bit of soap added. In fact, many shops have switched to water with some sort of lubrication and biocide added to prevent algae growth.

[irnsrgn]

After many years running my own job shop doing smithng, welding and machining, I have found that the newer clear cutting oil has a tendency to bind or gaul up when used for cutting threads in a designated machine, and will make milling cutters stop cutting till it gets enough pressure to gouge in and start cutting again and sometimes it ends up breaking the cutter. I went back to the old dark cutting oil as it makes the cutting tools last longer.

Any production machine a constant flow is needed to keep the tool cool.

Tap Magic is the best for machining or drilling SS. And the old timers used kerosene for drilling cast iron. Most of the time water is just as good as oil. and for end mills and woodruff key cutters I just use a little air pressure on the tool to keep the cuttings from building up and to keep the tool cool.

Alumicut is used for drilling and taping Aluminum.

[Ten Hammers]

I have been using some stuff from the farm store made by the LACO company. Gallons. Nice dark brown and fair thick. Really excellent for drilling and tapping and the price is good. Tap Magic is good stuff too. I have no machines with sumps. My usage is from a squirt bottle.

[canman]

Hello everyone,
I have been doing machine work for 25 yrs. I have tried a lot of the commercial fluids and have had some that were actually pretty good. My favorite cutting compound is lard ( not Crisco) and sulfur. This works great for tapping and drilling. It has an unpleasant smell but I like its performance. It is worth dealing with the smell. Whether it is a fluid or paste is determined by the ambient temperature. If you need a fluid just heat it up. Besides being the best, it is probably the cheapest.

canman

[tatanka]

I ran lg. turning machines and we used a water and oil mix to cool our tooling. I always used the same thing for drilling and tapping, seemed to work well. but remember speed is very inportant.

[tecnovist]

I was serprised at how well Jiff worked ok a don't know how good it was for the cutting tool / drill

[kustomrod]

We use Molyslip MCC at work for drilling and tapping. Couldn't find much info on it that wasn't in German.

We also use a water/cutting compound mix in the lathes, radial arm drill press and band saw.

[Glenn]

Thanks for the help.