Cutting Oil STP?

mikey said:
Try Relton A-9 on aluminum. Best aluminum cutting fluid out there, at least as far as I know, and definitely better than WD-40. When surface finish matters, try A-9.
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Relton A-9 is great stuff. I bought a small bottle of it to try when I was trying out alternatives for TapMagic Aluminum. Smells good & I like the color (green is my favorite color). I don't always like the thicker consistency though although I perfer that viscosity for steels. My favorite for aluminum is Winbro AlumTap (or AlumaTap as some people incorrectly say but there is actually a product called AlumaTap also), the original formula though. They have a new non-chlorinated formula.

I used to use TapMagic Aluminum. At some point I couldn't stand the smell of it anymore, gets on your fingers & the smell doesn't wash off. What's weird is it never made me sick when I first started using it.

I know a lot of people swear by WD-40 or kerosene for aluminum & while they do work well (I've never tried kerosene myself), the 3 mentioned above work better IMO. WD-40 is cheap & available anywhere though. I only use WD-40 for cleaning.

I use TapMagic EP-Xtra (or Boelube 90) on steel. Like it but it can cause a smoke storm, I don't like to keep my garage door open.

I use Boelube 90 on stainless & Ti. Really it works great on everything. Non-toxic & doesn't stink at all. But the stuff is very expensive. Now that Enco is gone I use it sparingly. Luckily I still have a gallon & a half of it which should last me a long time but if I run out not sure I will buy more unless the price comes down (unlikely).

AnchorLube is great too but I never really use it, I have a jar of it but I tend to forget to reach for it. I use SafeTap Paste the most when tapping. It's a gel & I get good results with it.

But what do I know, I'm just a hobby guy but this is what I have been sticking with.
 
darkzero said:
I used to use TapMagic Aluminum. At some point I couldn't stand the smell of it anymore, gets on your fingers & the smell doesn't wash off. What's weird is it never made me sick when I first started using it.
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TapMagic Aluminum has a fragrance called cinnamaldehyde in it that is a sensitizer. The way sensitizers work is by making you more sensitive to the effects of the substance the more you are exposed to it. The esters in TapMagic smell funny too, which is probably why they added the cinnamal to the formula.

Cue for my pitch for castor oil based cutting oils... CRC TrueTap HD is my current fav.
 
pontiac428 said:
TapMagic Aluminum has a fragrance called cinnamaldehyde in it that is a sensitizer. The way sensitizers work is by making you more sensitive to the effects of the substance the more you are exposed to it. The esters in TapMagic smell funny too, which is probably why they added the cinnamal to the formula.

Cue for my pitch for castor oil based cutting oils... CRC TrueTap HD is my current fav.
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Hmm, is that why I hear some people say it has a cinnamon-ish smell? I don't smell cinnamon. It's weird, the new formula regular TapMagic doesn't smell bad to me like the Tapmagic Alumnium does. I wonder why the TapMagic Alumnium makes me sick now when it didn't the first couple of yrs I started using.
 
Not to hijack the thread, but can someone school me on the trick to using AnchorLube? I bought it to bore some stainless once upon a time and no matter how I applied it, I couldn't see that it did anything at all. True, it was some bad### stainless....
 
Should have added, I had better luck with regular dark cutting oil for the boring and turning. I use a coolant pump with a semi-synthetic mostly for cooling when milling with good results. Always try to take a bite that is solid enough to discourage work hardening but not so much that it overheats or stresses the cutting tools. I'm sure AnchorLube is a good product but maybe I'm using it wrong.
 
I just apply a coating of it on the work and it seems to work fine. Not sure if there is any other way to use Anchorlube ...
 
You can thin AnchorLube with water to whatever consistency you want. Out of the container it comes in, it is much too thick for most uses. I often squeeze a bit onto the vise of the mill or drill press, or the cross slide of the lathe, add a bit of water, mix it in with an acid brush to the consistency I want, and then slather it on the work. I actually rarely use it, mostly just on difficult to cut work or work that slings off most lubes, like high rpm drill bits.
 
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