Cutting fluid

A

AlanP

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It was suggested that turning mild steel on my new toy would be better with cutting fluid, so my question is, can I make this fluid up at home, bearing in mind that I live in the UK.


Alan
 
Alan,
Consider that many, many of us HSM'ers dont use cutting fluid - even my highly skilled machinist friend, who has flow cooling on one lathe and a mister on his mill, seldom uses them. As dalee says, there are several alternates to the mess of coolant. Get several of those little 'drip' plastic bottles and keep kerosene, WD40, cutting oil. and anything else along that line and keep them near the mill and lathe. Definitely get some set-up to keep a good cutting oil in a container with a small brush (acid brushes over here..) to dab on the part youre working on. As he said Aluminum has different needs ... and stainless ... and brass ... you prolly oughta do a bit of research as to whats what. Basically for steel, a good cutting oil applied with the brush covers all my needs at the lathe (sulphur based if you can get it)
 
I have always used a mixture of household grease, bacon, and kerosene. I found it in an early Machinists Handbook.
 
Thanks very much for the information lads, it' much appreciated.

Like the idea of bacon fat, means Ill have to have a bacon sarny every morning now.

Alan
 
I find lard (Manteca, for our Spanish speaking friends) a great cutting agent. I mix lard and kerosene, run it thru a sieve and put it in a spray bottle. It can be dispensed with an acid brush and cup for those really stingy with a buck. It works great. A one or two pound plastic tub of lard will last years, even here in the Texas heat. After a couple of months it won't look so white and pretty, But I have yet to have it start smelling, except for the smell of kero when I mix it :)

It is inexpensive, available at most groceries and works great. Why waste your money on the expensive synthetic stuff? "Try it, you'll like it". I use it on about any metal.
Lard in the tub is a great tapping lubricant.

Randy
 
Re: Cutting fluid....... porky goodness

Bacon grease EVIL..... it's heavy on salt, nasty source of corrosion. Go to the grocery and find the tub of unsalted lard...... great for steel, and any of the stringy alloys: especially for threading.

Only down side is that bacon grease smells wonderful when machining.

Best
Cyclotrongy
 
Lard is also very usefull as a lapping paste for very fine fits, down to a few Microns.

As to cutting fluid I use Virgin olive oil Works great on steel .The fact that I have 60 olive trees has no bearing on this choice MMM!

Regards Brian.
 
You guys are making me hungry! Stop it! :)
 
Olive oil Oh boy the bacon grease makes it hard enough to keep working, a little olive oil and I'd be inside snaking between cuts.I generally cut dry and let the material tell me when I need to apply a cutting oil, I've never had a problem with rust or the salt from the grease but I had never thought about it either. I also cut a lot of aluminum and the WD-40 helps with that.
 
I prefer using the old ways rather than trusting some chemist who works for a money driven individual, too many times in my 55 years of being here I have found out their concoction is way more harmful than good. Everything the chemical company invents is a half azzed attempt at replicating mother nature or an out and out failure while trying to invent something else. The chemical companies are holding every aspect of our lives food, drugs and everything material we use in their greedy pockets. Not a day goes by where something that they claimed to be the best is pulled from the shelves because its found to be harmful, with China added to the mix, whats really more harmfull bacon grease or their mix of the day:)
 
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