Your favorite aluminium milling/drilling lubricant?

[nctnico]

Today I used the Relton A9 for drilling and tapping and it seems to work very well. Also the forming taps work like a charm! The hole diameter is crucial though. Because I drilled the holes in soft aluminium in one go the first few turns aren't that good due to the hole being slightly larger. I also tried a drill 0.1mm smaller but with that the forming tap seemed to get stuck after a few turns. I didn't want to apply more force to it because a) I don't want to have a broken tap in my workpiece b) the taps are not cheap at over 30 euro each (ex. VAT).

[SeanB]

Those forming taps work extremely well on plastics as well, and make a decent thread. Works well on PTFE rod to make a thread, though you will have to drill undersize there.

[rx8pilot]

Those forming taps work extremely well on plastics as well, and make a decent thread. Works well on PTFE rod to make a thread, though you will have to drill undersize there.

I use them for Delrin (Acetal Copolymer) material all the time - hundreds of thousands of successful threads.

[jonatanrullman]

I actually just use liberal amounts of rapeseed oil from the grocery store, usually applied with a $1 paint brush.
Probably not the best, but so far it has worked alright and it does have a few points in its favour. The price not least. And the (lack of) smell. Also it is of course entirely safe for consumption, not irritating to skin and fairly easy to clean so you don't have to watch out as much.

Cheers

[cdev]

Quick question- I bought these tools as part of a batch of stuff I got at an estate sale some time ago in the hope that I could use them as part of a metal shop. They look like CNC milling tools, can anybody tell me more about them or what the little things in the small box are used for? I don't know the first thing about this but I would like to learn.

Are they for CNC milling of blocks of metal?

[BradC]

Quick question- I bought these tools as part of a batch of stuff I got at an estate sale some time ago in the hope that I could use them as part of a metal shop. They look like CNC milling tools, can anybody tell me more about them or what the little things in the small box are used for? I don't know the first thing about this but I would like to learn.

Are they for CNC milling of blocks of metal?

The units in the top pticure are fly cutters, and the tips look like interchangeable tips for circlip pliers.
It'd be interesting to see the taper on the fly cutters to get an idea of the spindle they are designed for.

On topic, I've always used Kero for ally, but I was chatting to an old machinist yesterday who swears by diesel. I couldn't hack the smell myself, but he reckons the extra couple of gnats worth of lubricity makes a noticeable diffference particularly on a small / underpowered machine.

[langwadt]

https://youtu.be/Z8XLkmNORkg?t=13m36s

[BradC]

https://youtu.be/Z8XLkmNORkg?t=13m36s

I did the cylinder head on my current Volvo using a home made HSS fly cutter on my neighbours mill.
Used Kero as the lubricant for the Aluminium and Glenmorangie as the lubricant for the machinist.

[rx8pilot]

Those single point fly cutters are used for manual machines in general. They are very slow which is the opposite dream with CNC which usually uses a 5-7 flute indexable face mill that can make a mirror flat surface at amazing speeds.

Sent from my horrible mobile....

[cdev]

How do you get all the faces to mill at exactly the right height and angle?

[rx8pilot]

Its a single point that rotates creating a flat plane.

Sent from my horrible mobile....