Tapfree Question

[Doubleeboy]

You can still get TCE , all by itself at scientific supply places. Mix a little with your favorite cutting oil and voila that old magic is back again. It seems to blend will with the new Tap Magic and works about as well as the old stuff. Its not cheap but a quart ought to last any home shop guy a lifetime or two. I think I paid about 50 bucks for a quart 4 or 5 years ago. Found it on a google search, had to claim it was for scientific work. I have also used it mixed with lard oil for tapping and threading, works fine.

michael

 

[benmychree]

You may have the last two cans of that stuff on the planet. It contains 1,1,1 tricloretheline (sp?), was outlawed in the late 70's as an ozone depleter. Great for tapping steel, reacts with aluminum, so don't use it with that. If you flooded the work with it, it could be a cutting fluid, but it is not a cutting oil. It has about the viscosity of water. Has a cinnamon-ish odor.

Save it for tapping, reaming. The stuff works great, but use it sparingly, you can't get any more.

Also, one can mix some of it with cutting oil for particular work where a nice finish is required; nowadays, Tapfree is basically this same thing, I use it for nearly everything in the shop, including aluminum. My apprenticeship shop had trichloroethylene available for all to use, mixed with cutting oil and perhaps a bit of white lead ------ that is what we had, and we all used it. The white lead was mixed in for reaming, tapping and threading in the engine lathes. Yes, I still occasionally use it, have a lifetime supply.