Flood coolant/cutting oil options

Getting further along in getting my 2HL back together. Looking for options for flood coolant/cutting oil.

I should note that the mill is in my home hobby shop and won't get used daily, weekly or sometimes monthly.

My current thoughts are to stay away from water based coolants. I have heard from other K&T owners on the yootoobs that water based coolants in these machines are a bad idea since they can hide rust in places not easily accessed.

A friend suggested Ridgid Nu-Clear Threading Oil. It'd be about $175 for a 5 gallon bucket.

Looking for other options to make a better informed decision.

TIA

Some pretty good threads and an article here on PM:









I saw another one more recently, but cant find it atm.

We ran Mobilmet "Gamma" for years in the screw-machines and kept it well filtered. No complaints other than it's messy if you don't pay attention to flow and pressure, lots of the first and not much of the second.

texasgeartrain said:

Some pretty good threads and an article here on PM:

How to Select and Maintain Machine Coolant [Updated 2020]

Working with the right coolant will allow you to machine parts smoothly and avoid issues, but selecting the right one can be challenging.

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Want to use oil as a coolant

After hearing and seeing what water soluble coolants can do to machines, I'd like to use oil instead, but which oil? I'm cutting mostly brass and aluminum, and occasionally steel. Would something like WD40 work? If not, what would?

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Best general purpose coolant

What in your opinion is the best general purpose coolant in a job shop atmosphere where you would be cutting every type of material imaginable? We cut everything from basic aluminum all the way up to exotics... tantalum, super duplex, nitronic, Inconel, you name it at some point we cut it.

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Advice for a good general cutting oil?

Hi all - so I've been using various oils I have laying around and quite frankly I want something meant for what I am doing. I have a small Grizzly lathe that I cut stainless and aluminum on. Looking for something decent thats available through amazon or mcmaster or grainger or such. Any...

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Cutting oil vs water soluble

I know there are applications for both depending on materials etc. But, Just for the sake of conversation, which is preffered for general use and most importantly the best for the machines overall well being? I have worked in precision missle aircraft shops dealing with the space age...

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Coolant or cutting oil ??? I'm on the fence.

I have a big Warner & Swasey #5 turret lathe with the 4" capacity collet system. I've been running coolant in the machine, but I'm unhappy with the coolant because it's making the machine start to get sticky and I've had some rust issues. Also, I've got a 4" aluminum job in there right now with...

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Coolant vs cutting oil while machining

My question relates to the coolants used on lathes and other machinery. Since some coolants are diluted with water does that combination cause problems for the lathe itself in the form or rust and corrosion down the line? Is it better to pump coolant or cutting oil while machining?

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Oil as coolant

Good day boys, got a mind bending question about coolant. I have a LeBlond Regal which is my baby and I need to hook a coolant pump for it but I want to use straight oil. I never want to see H2O anywhere near this machine. I know my Hardinge CHNC ran straight oil before I switched it. So I...

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I saw another one more recently, but cant find it atm.

Click to expand...

That's a lot of reading.

I thought this was an interesting quote from one of the threads.

Blame me I am a chemist that actually formulates coolants and cutting oils.
I run cutting oil in my machines at home, low maintance, high lubricity But
then I try to run dry whenever I can.

Coolants (water mix metalworking fluids) are need for high speed CNC machine
tools where cooling the part and the tool are of primary importance, water
based coolant will provide higher productivity in 90-95% of production machining.
If you are a manual machine user, my suggestion is stick with a good cutting oil.

Click to expand...

I run flood habcool on my American 12" and both mills. Higher speed ops will splash it around which does make a mess, so I also use it in a pump oil can for smaller ops including tapping and threading. As flood, its fantastic for slitting saws, follower rest ops ie where lubricity and chip evacuation are important. Works fine for faster ops, but tends to be messy once it starts flinging- the improvment in finish and tool life is worth some effort but sooner or later the mess becomes too much.

I have a.length of conveyor belt material to drape over the lathe guard, to help capture chips and oil flinging off the lathe chuck.. at that point its tending towards diminishing returns.

First question would be: what type of water quality are you going to be using? The better the water quality the fewer hidden issues. Buy a premium coolant and use good water, and you should be good to go for months, even with intermittent use.

Straight oil, because it lacks water, is more forgiving. But you will want to make sure the pump can handle the viscosity of the oil. Most coolants have an effective viscosity of 1-3 cSt at 40C. Most good cutting oils will be in the 15cSt to 50cSt range. If your pump isn't rated for these viscosities, it will struggle and put unneeded energy into the oil in the form of heat.

For you K&T, something in the 22-24cSt range would be good for the type of work you would do. If you plan on running copper, brass, bronze, etc., then you should avoid oils with ACTIVE sulfur. Looks for copper corrosion scores of 1a and 1b to be safe. If not running yellow metals, or aluminum alloys with copper, then active sulfurs would be safe. If you want something multi-pupose, I would seek something with inactive sulfur and/or clorinated paraffins/olefins. This will give you broad performance over a range of materials and tooling.

Given your usage, why any coolant beyond what you can brush or squirt on as needed? If you are running carbide, you should not need coolant. If you are running HSS, well, sure, go with oil. Save the water-based stuff for your enclosed CNC.

Running any type of straight cutting oil shouldn't cause rust with indefinite sump life.

MyLilMule said:

Looking for other options to make a better informed decision.

Click to expand...

Something in the MobilMet 42x series. I use 426 when I use straight oil flood.

sfriedberg said:

Something in the MobilMet 42x series. I use 426 when I use straight oil flood.

Click to expand...

This might be the front runner. Works for all metals and isn't all that expensive.

it is problematic just front runner