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Cutting oil? honing oil? whats the difference?

Greetings : I am "breaking the glaze" on an engine and I have light cutting oil here but no "honing" oil. Went to the local auto parts shops and got a blank stare from most when I asked for honing oil. The napa store can sell me a 55 gal drum of it. Dont need that much, for 1 engine, Sooo= my question is can I use light cutting oil for honing the engine? And whats the difference? A machanic told me they used # 10 motor oil for this in the shop he worked in. But I thought to ask this group before I start anyway. Any information would be appericated, Thanks Tom.

Reply to
Thomas Allemani
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If you use one of the "cluster of grapes" type of hones, you need to use the specific honing oil that the manufacturer recommends or the abrasive balls will disintegrate. If you're just using a hone with standard long stones, light cutting oil should work, it's just needed to keep the stones from plugging up and keep the work cool, use liberally.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Reply to
Thomas Allemani

I would assume a plain ol bottle of 3 in 1 oil would be sufficient to keep the stones from loading up. That's what I use to sharpen knives with and I have been toolmaking for over

20 year and have never found a "bad" oil to hone/sharpen. I would not recommend motor oil though, as it is made to reduce friction with its additives.

CT

Reply to
CT

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Sunnen do a purpose made honing oil but like all Sunnen stuff it's ridiculously expensive. Paraffin (kerosene) with some oil mixed in to thicken it up a bit makes a serviceable alternative. I use the old paraffin from my parts cleaning tank so it's already a bit thicker and oily and I then add some more oil to bulk it up. Maybe 1 part oil to 3 parts paraffin. I've honed engine blocks with it for 15 years and although I'm sure the right honing oil would help me remove material a bit faster it does the job just fine and it's basically cost free. I imagine diesel or central heating oil would be equally good instead of the kerosene as they are basically similar hydrocarbons. Ideally you want something fairly thin and a constant flow of it from a pumped source or someone standing next to you with a squeezy bottle. As well as helping the stone work it also keeps the block at a more constant temperature. Honing generates a lot of heat.

Reply to
Dave Baker

Before the modern stuff, kerosene was common. Also Lard Oil, pretty much kerosene with Crisco.

Reply to
bw

Most of the guys around these parts simply use kerosene or more commonly...WD-40.

Gunner

"Gunner, you are the same ridiculous liberal f--k you ever where." Scipio

Reply to
Gunner

I hone alot of 2-stroke cylinders right in my solvent tank using plain ald stoddard solvent(mineral spirits). Pump it in through the exhaust ports. Not really looking for cutting oil, just something to cool the stones a bit and keep them clean. Must work, these are kart engines that do quite well against the best engines in the country............

Tom

Thomas Allemani wrote:

Reply to
Tom

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