Soluble oil mixed with water. 3-1 is a lubricant, right? Kinda defeats the cutting principle. What you want is something that won’t “boil”. You want it to stick/adhere to the metal and keep things cooler
Your local hardware store should have some type of pipe threading oil. That is where I bought mine 20 plus years ago, good and sticky. A little goes a long way! 60 Special
I have friends that own big machine shops, they let me grab some water-soluble oil when I need it. A big soda bottle lasts me years since the cut is 50:1. For tapping stainless I like Anchor Lube, it comes in small squeeze bottles too. It can be thinned with water. It works on regular steel too. Aluma Tap, I have been using it for many years. Great for tapping and general machining on aluminum. https://store.dwdavies.com/content/aluma-tap-120
I use cutting wax. Its a bit like soft candle wax but tends not to disperse so quick. It melts as soon as it starts to cut
Thread cutting oil you can get at the hardware store ain't what it used to be....but I recently bought an old lathe, that had a half full can of good old fashioned high sulfur cutting oil. I'm gonna make it last the rest of my life.
I got this for $8, A lifetime supply. But if would be nice to use it all up. A buddy come by and refills his little oil can. bump.
Here's a link to a guy who tests all kinds of things on his channel including, in this case, cutting oils. dirt t will find that his choice does not fare well but hrm2k has a winner.
For the machining that we do, I would not worry about specialty cutting oils. If you have a really difficult to machine material, yes the choice of oil may help. For most things, any old oil will be sufficient. Used motor oil, wd 40, whatever..........as long as it provides some lubrication and cools the tool. There is a difference somewhat if you are using a pump and circulating fluid that sprays on the part and the cutting tool, and usually a soluble oil works well there. Regular oil will work as long as the pump is happy with it. If you are just squirting oil from a hand held oil can, use what ya got available. Yes, I know that you can read technical information that will tell you oilX works better than oilY in special applications..........but generically most things are happy with any lubrication. Its often more about cooling and washing away the chip garbage than lubricating. Think about soluble oil........its mostly water.
I used Rapid Tap for years at work. Should have “redirected” a case when I retired. Probably isn’t available any more so I use 3 in 1…
I can still get rapid tap at my tool supplier. They make an aluminum version as well and it works pretty good
Several decades ago I worked for a company that had a well worn large lathe that was used mainly for roughing blanks for other jobs. The sump was filled with sulfur based oil for coolant. It would smoke with heavy cuts but after a while the sulfur based oil would become contaminated and turn rancid and stink like hell.
Most of your drilling and cutting has to do with the bit and cutting wheel you are using and the speed in which it is turning. Cutting fluid is just one piece to the puzzle. I just got done cutting some stainless steel and will be drilling thru it shortly.
Way back, when I was an apprentice in a tool and die shop, there was an old timer that used bacon grease. He kept it in a little paint can with a hole in the lid. He used an acid brush to dip and apply it to his cutting tools. He swore it worked well, but the shop always had the smell of bacon wafting around. That was a big distraction to us young bucks that always seemed to have the munchies. But we always used somebody elses drill index to clean out our pinch hitters.
I use plumber's thread cutting oil on my lathe and drill press. When making a through cut with a 3/4" end mill on my mill, I couldn't get my cutter to "bite" with the cutting oil so I tried plain water as a coolant. It worked good but the shavings and my table were rusting right away. I switched to some 50/50 anti-freeze mix for its anti-rust properties and it worked fine. I still use the cutting oil on the mill for light cuts. Gary
I put all the dribblings from motor oil, diff lube, trans fluid drums, ect into a squirter bottle, and it works fine. For hand cutting stuff, there is a stuff here called Trefolex (known as "Satan's arse" because it stinks) which works fine. A friend has a machine shop and uses a cooking oil (I think sunflower) and swears by it.
Rapid Tap used to have trichloroethylene in it, which was the magic ingredient. Chlorinated solvents have extremely low viscosity so can run in closer to the actual cutting tip of a tool where they are most needed. Some of the older machinists used to scrounge up a little chlorinated (or brominated) solvent and add it to the new cutting oil. I believe some brake cleaner solvent is such stuff. Actual chemical is not critical, just that it be a halogenated hydrocarbon.
For most drilling I use Kool Mist, mixed with water, and depending on how heavy the cut is, mix the ratio accordingly. The good thing is the cleanup, sponge and warm water. For the more difficult, I use commercial grade cutting oil.
I still use Rapid Tap (not as good as it was in the old days) on steel and A-9 or Boelube on aluminum.
When I was doing a tool room apprenticeship at a Federal Mogul plant, the older fella training me used to always say, “speeds n feeds, that’s the key”. We mostly used a water soluble cutting fluid, but did occasionally use Tap Magic.
One shop I was in used a spray mist, Cim Cool. I was allergic to it and opted to take a Bridgeport in a far corner away from those who used it. My one son worked as a gear cutter for a while, he came home with the sulphur oil stink on him and it was fresh stuff. This is the soluble one I mentioned, very good stuff. https://ameriweldinc.com/products/hangsterfers-s-500-cf Another is Blasocut. https://blaser.com/our-metalworking-solutions/water-miscible-fluids/ I have a spray mist tank in my mill and have used a spray mist when I did a lot of machining when I was in business. I haven't looked at that in quite a while... hope it has just evaporated...
I like this Easier cleanup than oils. I've gotten 100's of 3/4" holes in 3/8" steel (no pilot hole) out of 1 bit. I'm on my 2nd bottle since the late 90's. No smoke and it smells better too. Works for me. Mike
I’m just a hack. I’ve got a squirt oil can I’ve had for years, I put the remnants of pb blaster and wd 40 cans that won’t spray out, the dribbles out of motor oil and atf bottles, really anything oil based lube goes into it. Works fine for drilling 1/8” steel, which is about as thick as I fool with. I don’t have any machines like a lathe or mill, just a 1/2” drill press and a couple of hand drills. For the average hack like me, it works , maybe not as well as the specialized stuff, but good enough for the little I do.
I was talking to the proprietor of a coin store a few years ago and he asked "Are you a machinist?" I said yes, and he said he could tell because of my smell! Quite amusing. His father was a retired machinist so he could detect the cutting oil smell even though I was "cleaned up" that day. And it turned out I knew his father slightly before he retired.
We had one father when my kids were in Scouts, he would show up at pack night and I knew he worked in a machine shop. By his looks he likely worked on aluminum castings, those have a smell of their own. The place I did my night gig at, I had to drop something off there on my way to my day job. I'm fresh and clean and 2 guys there asked me how I smelled so clean 1st thing in the morning. They both worked on cylindrical grinders, getting splashed with water-soluble coolant and they smoked Camels. When a wheel had to be dressed, it added a gun powder type stink to the mix. Something in the bonding agent I guess.
I got a small bottle with my Tap Matic tapping head, works great on aluminum and smells decent. Likely toxic as hell. I still have a squeeze bottle of Moly Dee, which is great on steel and stainless. Mine is old, before Castrol took them over.
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