SpudFiles

Mineral spirits eh?? I'll have to try that and compare.

You'll love it! For Aluminum I mean...

it really gives smooth surface cut, and it is not oily or greasy. Work fine both for HSS and carbide cutters. Good for milling too.

I have compared with some industrial cutting oil I have, and it really is as good. At least for what I do, which is always very small... like that

http://www.nutsnbits.com/nutsnbits_00006d.htm

john bunsenburner wrote:I am only cutting and drilling so calm down. I can't wait till I get all the stuff together!

Be sure to check the flash point of any cutting lubricant. If you do reach ignition temperature on a cutting chip, you want the rest of the oil well below the flash point so it doesn't go whoosh . For this reason, very thin low flash point solvents should be avoided.

I often have cutting oil up to smoking, but if any flame breaks out, it is limited to the local area of the cut. Do not permit a pile of oil laden chips to build under the work area. A flaming chip could spell trouble.

For non ferris work, water based cooling is often quite good and safe.

Just looked up the flash point of one of the Ahem recommended cutting oils.. Varsol.
104 degrees F.. 43 degrees C. Yikes.

I can only speak from my own experience, but I never had a flame or even fumes cutting aluminum. And I did cut at high speed with carbide cutters.

Gippeto wrote:Mineral spirits eh?? I'll have to try that and compare.

Gippeto, I read somewhere that WD-40 is based on mineral spirits. I can't confirm that. I will say that mineral spirits are much cheaper than WD especially in 1 gal or larger sizes. They smell real similar and evaporate at about the same rate. As everybody knows, WD gets gummy when it evaporates.

USGF wrote:

Gippeto wrote:Mineral spirits eh?? I'll have to try that and compare.

Gippeto, I read somewhere that WD-40 is based on mineral spirits. I can't confirm that. I will say that mineral spirits are much cheaper than WT especially in 1 gal or larger sizes. They smell real similar and evaporate at about the same rate. As everbody knows, WT gets gummy when it evaporates.

I believe the main ingredient is supposed to be a fish oil product.

SubsonicSpud wrote:I believe the main ingredient is supposed to be a fish oil product.

This is my understanding as well, but the oil is "thinned" with a carrier solvent, which may well be mineral spirits???

I was told about WD, tried it, and fell in love with the "rainbow" finish.

I will try mineral spirits,...you may have a convert.

Mineral spirits FTW!!!

Because I'm curious I will try the WD40 as well