The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Fluid recomendation.

What do you guys suggest for a cutting fluid while running a lathe or Bridgeport on say stainless or tooling steel? Maybe even a good machinist remedy and no not Jack and Coke..

Hotrod Lincoln can tell you what works best. He'll be by shortly.

PM Hotrod Lincoln. He does a lot of milling, has a Bridgeport, and will tell you what he uses.

You can click on his name in the left hand column ("Who's Online Now") if he's currently online. Well, goodness gracious. He's ONLINE NOW!

"Stainless" covers a variety of rust-resistant alloys, and some of them don't like to be machined at all. I haven't used this specific brand, but it claims to be suitable for "stainless". You might have to experiment with your cutting speed, depth of cut, and rate of feed to get the best results.

www.ebay.com/itm/134389826580?

The choice of cutter is also important- - - -high speeds steel cutters tend to get dull very quickly on most stainless material- - - -I have switched to tool holders that use tungsten carbide inserts for most of the machining I do on anything except soft aluminum and low carbon "mild steel". Good luck!
Jerry

Thanks there Ol Reliable, like I have always said when Hotrod Lincoln talks everybody listens.

Just remembered another sneaky trick- - - - -when drilling tough steel, a mixture of salt-free lard and a little 30 weight motor oil to make it slightly runny does a good job of lubricating the drill bit. I've never tried it on stainless, but it does have one advantage- - - -a hot drill bit smells like bacon cooking!
Jerry

Hey, thanks there ol buddy, retired now but over the years working for Lockheed Martin we drlled some dam hard metals and used an assortment of liquids and paste, ba k in the 70's and early 80's we actually used Bees wax while building the SR'71'S. We appreciate your advanced, technical advise, don't ever leave us (Hotrod Lincoln).

My other vice besides building stovebolt engines is gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. I got John M. hooked on reloading a while back by setting him up with a few extra loading presses, bullet molds, and other casting and loading supplies that were taking up space in my gun shop. I make cast bullet lubricant from beeswax toilet bowl seal rings, automotive chassis grease, and paraffin sealing wax from the canning department at Walmart. It's good for bullet speeds up to about 2K feet per second.
Jerry

As a career machinist for 27 years, we used several types of cutting fluids. On small jobs including turning/milling/tapping and threading we used Rapid Tap or Tap magic in quart sized cans. These however created allot of fumes in the machines. So for jobs that took allot of time, the machines were equipped with water soluble cutting fluid as it did a better job of keeping the tools cool and had the added bonus of the not creating clouds of fumes.

University of Tennessee mechanical engineering instructor's comment, 1963- - - - -"Keep a cool tool!" The same advice works today!
LOL!
Jerry

A former Navy ship machinist I know said that they used Karo syrup on stainless steel with the drill press set as slow as you could.
He said that it will smell like a cotton candy machine at the County Fair if you do it right. If you put too much pressure on it, the syrup will smell burnt. You need to ease up on the pressure.
He said that it made for a fine cutting oil with an olfactory control sensor built in.

For tapping and threading stainless, the best product we have found is called "Moly Dee" by Castrol. It's not cheap but a little goes a long way. For general machining (drilling, milling and turning) we use a full synthetic coolant.

John

for coolant drilling , i have been using transmission fluid , for me this is easy to buy local and worked drilling all sizes of holes in thick and thin metals