Best oil for drilling and tapping

[muleman69]

Always looking for a better oil, our choices are very limited here in the golden state of course. Maybe I should try cannibas oil seems to be the only thing legal....lol

 

[boltfluter]

Moly D has been very good for me. Not sure if spelling is correct.

Paul

 

[jackson1]

Quick answer, for me, with a life time in the trade, any oil will work. The goal is to prevent the chip from freezing to the tool. With out going into a long homily regarding tapping, it is a function of the material, specific tap being used, set up, and whether tapping under power or by hand. A broken tap can wreck your day. Always check cutting surfaces for wear. If in doubt, use a new tap. Taps can be re sharpened. Hope that isn't more than you wanted to know.

 

[Dud]

For drilling, I agree, most any oil will cool the cutting surfaces and prevent work hardening until you cook it off.

For tapping, I feel like there is more friction and better oils like Castrol Moly D will let you tap deeper before pulling out and makes machine tapping a lot nicer, with less broken taps. On the down side, Moly D is a bit stinky.

 

[Kevin Taylor]

ACE Threading oil. High sulfur. Best for tapping and reaming. In the plumbing supplies isle at Ace Hardware.

 

[centershot]

I need a little help here. I use a drill press for this operation. A friend of mine said he always used penetrating oil for both. Also, after you drill the hole, I put the tap in the chuck and turn the chuck by hand while feeding the tap. Obviously, you can not turn on the motor! Any tips to what I am doing?

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Tap Magic is a good general purpose threading oil.

 

[Dud]

I need a little help here. I use a drill press for this operation. A friend of mine said he always used penetrating oil for both. Also, after you drill the hole, I put the tap in the chuck and turn the chuck by hand while feeding the tap. Obviously, you can not turn on the motor! Any tips to what I am doing?

In a drill press, I use a little dead center in the chuck for downward pressure and a tapping handle to twist the tap.

If you have a low RPM drill press and feel lucky, you can chuck up a tap, turn on the motor and send it. In a milling machine, you can use a power tapping head which has a clutch and gears so you get both power tapping and power reverse without shutting off your spindle.

For large threads in soft materials, it's easy, just make sure you have enough downward pressure to fully bite in to the first few threads, reverse it often and don't let chips get bound up in the tap.

Smaller threads in harder materials makes it easier to break a tap. Hopefully you'll get a feel for it before you break too many.

 

[ridgeway]

Tap magic and Emuge works well...

 

[hogpatrol]

Another vote for Tap Magic. There are different types for specific metals but all work well.

 

[PatMiles]

On the down side, Moly D is a bit stinky.

A lot stinky!

 

[spclark]

...and don't let chips get bound up in the tap.

Tapping RULE #1 that one is!

 

[Dud]

A lot stinky!

I guess it's a good thing you haven't smelled Swagelok large fitting anti-seize. It has a stink almost as powerful as hobo shit.

By comparison it makes Moly D smell like cologne.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Quick answer, for me, with a life time in the trade, any oil will work. The goal is to prevent the chip from freezing to the tool. With out going into a long homily regarding tapping, it is a function of the material, specific tap being used, set up, and whether tapping under power or by hand. A broken tap can wreck your day. Always check cutting surfaces for wear. If in doubt, use a new tap. Taps can be re sharpened. Hope that isn't more than you wanted to know.

Whats your best advice to remove an 8-40 hss tap broke off at an angle below flush? I used it to tap one too many action holes.

 

[shoobe01]

Whichever soluble oil a friend gives me from work.

Chevron Soluble Oil B or similar. No smell, general purpose so works for all cutting, great for cooling, easy cleanup as it's water soluble, vaporizes visibly ("smokes") when you get it too hot but before you generally damage anything so a good sign for people like me who are poor at many machine operations.

 

[Dud]

Whats your best advice to remove an 8-40 hss tap broke off at an angle below flush? I used it to tap one too many action holes.

Is it a blind hole?

Sometimes you can use a hard punch to shatter the remains of a broken tap but that might be a pain in the butt with something small like that.

The best way to do it is to get a dipper EDM to electrically erode the tap.

If you are really lucky and broke the tap by bending rather than getting bound up with chips or otherwise stuck, sometimes you can back out a broken tap.

 

[hogpatrol]

Whats your best advice to remove an 8-40 hss tap broke off at an angle below flush? I used it to tap one too many action holes.

If no access to EDM, flatten with a carbide end mill and then drill with a carbide drill bit. BTDT.

 

[msinc]

I was having trouble with reamers galling while cutting a chamber. Dave Manson recommended "Viper Venom" cutting oil. It positively cured the problem and was not really expensive. I think Grizzly carries it.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Moly d is the stuff for tapping hard materials. Broken taps are easily removed by plunging a carbide end mill. I trash 8-40 taps used for firing pin bushing and scope mounts after a couple uses. Moly d, power feed, and sharp seems to work.

 

[ridgeway]

Another thing that works well on broken taps is take a carbide shank of an endmill and grind a spade point on the end. Just size the diameter just to take the web out.