The Chopper Compendium

Are they needed for general turning or mostly for parting & knurling? Different cutting oils for different metals, alum, steel, stainless?what weight oil?...thanks

Any oil is good to cool the part because you let it get too hot when it cools the part will be out of tolerance. but if not doing production runs for long periods of time turning on a lathe needs no oil or milling on a mill.

That being said I only use a cutting oil when parting off with lots of air, drilling, and also threading on my lathe or mill.

I will let cool to temp when i get with in a tenth and then check and do the finish passes.

You only really need a High Sulpur cutting oil and a threading tapping compound paste.

Thanks brother man

If you realy want to use motor oil here is a recipe from the 40s.
1 quart cheep motor oil
3 cups liquid dish washing soap
4 gallons water

Or
Canola oil and bacon grease 50/50

or Salt free lard oil and canola oil 50/50

or
75% salt free lard and 25% kerosene.
or
Plumbers thread cutting oil
Dusty

While looking through those old recipes I found my copy of a 40s army chart.

Dusty

I've always used Cool Tool 2 for taping and soluble oil for everything else on a manual. My CNC's have always used synthetic and flood coolant.

20yrs ago I met a guy who worked at the UofA. They had mounted a load cell to a chuck and used a 1/2" drill in a lathe. They tested the load to drill a hole using every cutting fluid known to man. Cool Tool 2 won hands down. In a pinch anything will work including WD40. Though, I've never tried Crisco, I'm sure it would work too.

I can pick up plumbers cutting oil easy enough, I probably give that a shot.

The high sulpur is recomended with stainless but i use for everything. It works so?