Lubricant for shaping metal

Pork fat, don't forget the eye of newt (well, if it's got animal fats) ;-)

(Seriously, lard oil is a common choice, at least for cutting.. I would

Tim

-- "I have misplaced my pants." - Homer Simpson | Electronics,

An old die supply salesman told me to use undiluted soulable oil because the molecules are long and sticky. It has worked good for a lot of operations.

Be cautious that too much lube can result in bubbles in the surface.

What I would probably look at for this purpose would be the lubricants sold for cartridge reloading. The reloading operation involves running the cartridges into dies to squeeze them back to standard size after each firing, and cartridges are thinwall tubing, except for the end where the primer pocket lives. You're just expanding instead of squeezing, but the basic principles are probably close enough to the same.

At one time RCBS sold a case sizing lube which was just plain lanolin, so look at that, too.

Good Luck, DoN.

operations.

This works excellent for tapping aluminum....

I often will mix about 1/6 or so of water into the straight soluble oil and whip it up into a stiff whitish consistancy and brush it on before power tapping.

Every 3 or 4 years I buy a quart of cheap 20 weight oil and a can of STP, and mix them together for case lube. Works great, even when doing serious cartridge conversions

Gunner

"To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated." - Trefor Thomas

Seems to make a pretty servicable engine assembly lube, too, at least for crank and cam bearings, chains, lifter bores....ect.