Tapping fluid suggestions

Tap-Magic.

I use Cool Tool II most of the time on stainless, but he tougher grades of stainless like 316 tap easier with Anchorlube G-771.

Randy

Alumatap.

Molydee.

michael

My favorite all around cutting fluid is the same one I use for turning, milling, and tapping. It's a 50/50 mix of kerosene and lard oil.

Jim

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I'd suggest SafeTap Paste. Fits the thicker and stickier bill, I've used it on both Aluminum and Stainless (303 and 304 mostly).

Thanks guys, About as many suggestions as there are choices in the msc catalog.

I guess I'll stick with tm as I am too lazy to make my own. I'll get a pint of the mollydee just because it has an interesting name.

I must agree with Kent, as I often use wd40 I get in gallon cans when doing anything in aluminum.

I like the tapping wax sticks sold by Small Parts and possibly others.

Wax is an EPL, an Extreme Pressure Lubricant. Tapping generates extreme pressures.

When you fill the hole with the wax stick made to fit it, supplied in American numbered screw sizes like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, etc., you find the wax lubricates the cut while ejecting the chips as it extrudes.

Ordinary candle wax isn't near as good an EPL, but will extrude. It's hard to inject wax into a hole and the premade sticks are just what you need for difficult tappng.

Dipping a graphite fiber in wax can almost do it, if the fiber is thin and weak without being composited (high modulus, low elongation = brittle, low work of fracture) Yes, I know carbon composites are strong. That's because they are composited with the right material. But you really want the right wax and the size of the dipped fiber is a little difficult to control.

If it doesn't fill the hole the first threads will be almost unlubricated. You can dip the tap in wax; just the tip.

If you're having a hard time tapping stainless with a hand tap or even a gun tap, get a tapper; at least a hand guide, and preferably a tapping table. Alignment makes a lot of difference in stainless because it has such a high work of fracture: it's strong and malleable. Any excess thread depth makes the torque required go way up. It's already high just to make the tap cut the metal. Ti would give the same trouble, I'd suppose.

To tap four holes in the end of a square bar, near the corners, set the work up in the lathe with a four jaw chuck, indicate it, and turn the chuck by hand with the drive disengaged, and the tap in the tailstock, pressed in by hand or screw feed, but the tailstock should not be locked to the ways.

It was four fine threaded holes in the end of a one inch square stainless bar that taught me all this. I had to do it three or four times before I got even one hole right. I broke a few taps. It's about alignment, believe me.

The wax sticks are very convenient and don't smell at all.

Moly disulphide is an EPL.

Yours,

Doug Goncz (at aol dot com) Replikon Research

Replikon Research researches replikons, which are self-reproducing configurations of non-living matter in environments that support replication, analogous to organisms living in ecologies.

When a local supplier claimed that the HDS400 was the best cutting fluid they have, I bought a bottle. He was right. It's what I use for threading, especially pipe, and for parting reluctant materials. Normally I use Cool Mist for turning and drilling but when it does'nt quite cut it (sic), out comes the Jokisch.

I also have and usually use A-9 for aluminum.

Ted