Satire of Sanity
Plastic
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2019
- Location
- Central Texas, USA
Somehow I am in charge of a machine shop at a technical high school- I'm a trained machinist, but only have a year of industry experience because some chronic issue developed in my hands, so "how to get a machine shop up and running" is something I'm learning to do as I go. The previous guy left the machine shop a mess. I've gotten the students through measurement, benchwork, tramming mill heads, and using edgefinders, and am about to get them working on actual material, but the previous instructor's exclusive cutting fluid was WD40. The only cleaning agent, the only coolant, the only rust preventative; WD40. Ok, there's some tap magic, but unless I'm mistaken I think that's, ya know, for tapping. Having only used the cutting fluid or coolant that an instructor or manager handed to me saying "this one", the process of researching this and also developing a curriculum and fixing machine tools is tough.
I could really use some advice on a general cutting fluid for use by these high-schoolers (and me) on 1018 steel specifically, but something that works decently on steel, aluminum (mostly 6061), and maybe brass too would be great.
It's just manual bridgeport style mills and a couple of barely-functional manual lathes, we're not gonna be making huge or deep cuts, we don't need a pristine mirror surface finish, a cutting oil that will help with the tool life of HSS tools (a few carbide inserts too) would be great, and that can be applied as-needed by the students with an oil can. I can order and store stuff that comes in 5 or 10 gallon containers, but if it only comes in 55-gallon barrels, well, that'll be tough to get without having actually seeing if it works in the classroom environment. Plus, as a school, there are "Certified Vendors" for the district, so a product that's made and distributed by a single company in Austria or whatever probably didn't put in a bid for a contract with the school district....
I know that's quite a wish list, so I'll sum up with- when money or quantity isn't too much of a concern, what type of cutting fluid do you use on a steel alloy like 1018?
I could really use some advice on a general cutting fluid for use by these high-schoolers (and me) on 1018 steel specifically, but something that works decently on steel, aluminum (mostly 6061), and maybe brass too would be great.
It's just manual bridgeport style mills and a couple of barely-functional manual lathes, we're not gonna be making huge or deep cuts, we don't need a pristine mirror surface finish, a cutting oil that will help with the tool life of HSS tools (a few carbide inserts too) would be great, and that can be applied as-needed by the students with an oil can. I can order and store stuff that comes in 5 or 10 gallon containers, but if it only comes in 55-gallon barrels, well, that'll be tough to get without having actually seeing if it works in the classroom environment. Plus, as a school, there are "Certified Vendors" for the district, so a product that's made and distributed by a single company in Austria or whatever probably didn't put in a bid for a contract with the school district....
I know that's quite a wish list, so I'll sum up with- when money or quantity isn't too much of a concern, what type of cutting fluid do you use on a steel alloy like 1018?