What am I inhaling at the lathe?

silence dogood said:
A lot of times I eat bacon for breakfast. Cooking renders the oil out. Would filtering the oil through some cheese cloth make it good for cutting oil?
Click to expand...

The best cutting lube I ever had was some home brew bacon / lard grease mix that came with my first lathe.

Did make me want bacon sarnies a lot when in use.

Stu
 
Thanks, friends. I did not ever think or imply that delrin or ebonite is safer than metals. It fits my needs for the lathe. But my hoarseness stems from turning steel, which is the issue at hand.
Last night I swapped out the motor oil and will use my Anchor Lube sample, see how it works.
My mask is the 3M P100 with the 2091 filters. I use it religiously when grinding tools, and recently at the lathe, although I would certainly prefer to not use it at the lathe.
Thanks!
Tim
 
tmenyc said:
Thanks, friends. I did not ever think or imply that delrin or ebonite is safer than metals. It fits my needs for the lathe. But my hoarseness stems from turning steel, which is the issue at hand.
Last night I swapped out the motor oil and will use my Anchor Lube sample, see how it works.
My mask is the 3M P100 with the 2091 filters. I use it religiously when grinding tools, and recently at the lathe, although I would certainly prefer to not use it at the lathe.
Thanks!
Tim
Click to expand...

If your turning hot rolled steel I find it amazing how much dust the mill scale layer can make.

Stu
 
Several things can be going on here.

You can become sensitized to aromatic hydrocarbons that can have your chest go wheezy. This means vapors from acetone cleaner, WD40 squirts, and oil vapors. All of these are stopped by the standard 3M mask with the carbon filters. Mine is the M7502, but I mean the kind that make you look like an extra from "Alien" !

I start to go wrong from the slightest whiff, unless I use the mask. Also, whatever is in the paint rattle-cans also sets it off in me. Perhaps a good rule might be .. "If you can smell it, it is probably bad for you" !
 
When you heat up Delrin which is also called Acetal or POM, you get formaldehyde, which is the base chemical it is made from. That is the smell you are getting. You need a respirator at least, not a mask or exhaust the fumes.
 
I started working in a machine shop back in the early 80's right out of high school. It's kind of scary thinking back about all the stuff everyone was inhaling on a daily basis. Cutting oil smoke, cigarette smoke from the chain smokers, solder smoke from the electrical area, etc. None of it ever bothered me but it couldn't have been good for anyone's health. This is a good subject and one that should be taken seriously even if you're not bothered by what you breath.
 
Anchor Lube... was not aware of that one, I will go ahead and order some. I have WD-40 and Tap Magic...

This is a great thread. As I start using the lathe, I need to be aware of what to use to minimize inhaling stuff that would impact my health...
 
In case someone decides to try drug-store type of mineral oil as cutting oil, sometime back I noticed that the bottle we've got has vitamin E (tocopherol) added to it. That's the same stuff that caused all the Vaping lung problems. I'm sure that the level of exposure, compared to vaping, would be much lower....but this does highlight the potential hazards of using a material in a manner unanticipated by the manufacturer.
 
I always appreciate it when the OP posts an update with results... Anchor Lube, which I previously used only to lube a live center in a center hole, works great in turning 12L14 and the smoke issue has gone away with only that change. And, of course, the smoke did turn out to be was the source of my hoarseness, so the issue that got me to write this topic is also gone.
Thanks for all the help on this one!

(PS, I did decide to not use bacon grease or other cooking byproducts. My wife and I, in a NYC apartment, generally try to not have food outside of the kitchen and dining area, so the notion of moving the lathe into the kitchen provided a good laugh but not much else...)

Tim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top