Need metalworking lubricant recommendation.

Jim F

Jim F

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Need to find a lube for blanking, forming and piercing steel from .083 to .375 thick.
Presses are , 28T, 35T, 45T, 70T and 90T.
 
Lard goes rancid with exposure to air, pretty soon, things would stink. At Kaiser Steel, I think they used soluble oil.
 
benmychree said:
Lard goes rancid with exposure to air, pretty soon, things would stink. At Kaiser Steel, I think they used soluble oil.
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Soluble oil also goes off if not properly maintained; lard can be keep from going rancid by refrigeration when not in use. I have a bottle of lard oil (refined lard mixed with paraffin and other undisclosed petroleum based products) that is 40+ years old, stored at room temperature and does not smell any worse than it did when new – not that means anything since lard oil always smelled bad, but works very well.

OP asked what could be used, and lard was (and is in some places) used for lubricating steel sheets for punching and/or drawing. by extension, other, similar substances could be used, such as vegetable shortening which is shelf stable, or even a soft (not liquid) old fashioned bar soap.
 
We used lanolin cut with alcohol for aluminum for punch presses. Not sure how it would work with steel. The blanking presses used precoated stock. The stock was coated with a wax. The forming will be the test if your choice of lub will work.
 
I too have a can of lard oil that is likely of WW-2 vintage, I suspect the fact that the can is sealed with a screw cap has something to do with its shelf life, also I have a can of sperm whale oil, also not particularly good smelling --- not mentioning that at least for general machining of many metals, TapMagic excels over all other earlier cutting fluids from the past, there was a period after the banning of chlorinated chemicals such as trichlorethylene that the replacements were less effective than the prior formulations; this not so true now, I have some of the original Rapid Tap, and have observed that TapMagic is better than the original RapidTap.
 
ChazzC said:
Soluble oil also goes off if not properly maintained; lard can be keep from going rancid by refrigeration when not in use. I have a bottle of lard oil (refined lard mixed with paraffin and other undisclosed petroleum based products) that is 40+ years old, stored at room temperature and does not smell any worse than it did when new – not that means anything since lard oil always smelled bad, but works very well.

OP asked what could be used, and lard was (and is in some places) used for lubricating steel sheets for punching and/or drawing. by extension, other, similar substances could be used, such as vegetable shortening which is shelf stable, or even a soft (not liquid) old fashioned bar soap.
Click to expand...
One nice thing about soluble oil is that it gets washed away with water.
 
Bacon grease /mineral oil 50/50
Lard oil /Manteca heated and mixed 50/50 with mineral oil ( to make a thickish paste when cooled )
Tap magic (old formula with 1,1,1 trichloroethylene)
Anchor Lube
Automatic Transmission Fluid
Hydraulic Fluid
Rigid Dark Cutting Oil
Kerosene/mineral oil (40/60 to 25/75 oil)
Crisco ( vegetable shortening )
Pam ( cooking spray )

All these shop lubes/cutting agents work excellent for general shop use- everything from drilling, tapping, forming, punching, milling , to turning steels, stainless steels and non-ferrous alloys
 
ITW provides a wide range of commercial lubricants specifically for punching & forming, with specific recommendations based on material and thickness range; see this link. All appear to be water miscible and clean-up, but are not classified as soluble oils. The drawback is that you need to buy more than you probably need (unless you can talk them into a couple of samples for evaluation – that's how I got my first bottle of Anchor Lube (great on drilling SS, but needs to be cleaned of of steel immediately to prevent permanent staining).
 
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