Smoking cutting oil

Just stop using the oil. Its not worth the mess. If anything use a mister but again its really not usually worth the mess or hassle

I think one needs to look at the whole question of cutting fluids and their usage before giving any definitive answer. For example on high speed auto cnc machines the cutting fluid does several things.

1. keep the cutting tool and work piece cool. this is important so that dimensional accuracy is maintained.
2. Swarf flushing from the work face
3. reduction of wear of the cutting tool. Especially important if your making thousands of the same item. there will be others who will comment with other observations. It really depends on the job in hand and wether you dont mind cleaning up afterwards. Try a soluable oil ie one that loks like milk when mixed with water. Use plenty and you may find it wont burn up like the oil your using right now. Have fun!!

Or use a lot more oil to wash the chips away _and_ reduce the temperature.

Mark Rand RTFM

I don't know - I use cutting oil, it smokes, chips turn light straw, I figure everything's about right.

GWE

My machine shop instructor told me he likes to have it smoke. Means "productivitiy" to him.

Pete Stanaitis

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Alex wrote:

Sounds to me like you have it fairly well dialed in. Colored chips are a sign of running too fast. A slight yellowing is about as hot as you can go without sacrificing cutter life if you're running HSS cutters. You can expect the oil to smoke, there's a lot of heat dissipated when machining steels. Keep using the oil, it prolongs cutter life and improves surface finish drastically.

Harold

I use oil..high sulphur cutting oil for several reasons:

1. Works Great!
2. Keeps my machines from rusting. Important because my shop is only partally enclosed (converted car port) and is unheated in the winter time. Plus fog does on occasion blows in.
3. Keeps the machines lubricated.
4. Smoke isnt an issue in a partially enclosed shop. If bad..I simply turn on a fan
5. Mostly dirt floor..so the oil splash, if I have any..simply packs the floor down better
6. I get it for free in large quantities.

I dont like toilet water (water based coolants) because in my job as a paid, independant machine tool repair guy..I have to deal with machines that have been running toilet water, and a fair amount of my business comes from repairing the damage caused by poorly maintained water based collants. And I want my machines to last as long as possible.

The downside..is that because its a partially enclosed shop with a mostly dirt floor..dust is an issue. Particularly when it lands on oil covered surfaces.

So I make it an ALWAYS point to wipe down all sliding surfaces before operating a machine too, else the dust/oil mix makes a fair grinding compound.

Gunner

"Deep in her heart, every moslem woman yearns to show us her t*ts" John Griffin

Will running can carbide mill fast enough to make chips blue shorten end mills life?

All depends on the material and how fast. Carbide is intended to be run fast, but it, too, can be run too fast. If you see any signs of sparks coming off the cut, you're running too fast. If you run carbide too slowly, you risk breaking it. Be careful about your cutting tool choices if you have a light duty machine. You may find you're better off with HSS-------or not. Experience will teach you what works best for your particular setup-----and that usually comes by making a few mistakes. Try to remember what you do and how you do it so you don't repeat bad decisions. Do remember that blue chips off HSS is a mistake if you want tool life----and bright, silvery chips are probably a sign of too slow with carbide. Depth of cut and feed rate make a huge difference in cutting temperature, so it's not smart to lay down hard, fast rules. Too many variables. It's never a mistake to lubricate a cut as long as you don't experience thermal shock.

Harold