Crisco shortening.
One of the machinists at work said when he was in school, all of the machines had a tub of Crisco nearby and it worked really well.
Well, I few months back I picked up a jar and have been using it on the surface grinder. Great stuff for that! It stays in place and doesn't shoot all over the place (although it does tend to build up a bit in the wheel guard). The resulting slurry gives a mirror finish on the workpiece. And, it's easy to clean up when you're done.
Tonight I was doing a lot of aluminum turning on some large pieces and said what the heck... The Alumtap was getting everywhere and the vapors stunk! So, I grabbed the Crisco. Surprisingly, it worked VERY well! The tools kept very cool - even more so than with the Alumtap - and I got very nice finishes. When it gets hot, it just melts into the hot part of the work where it's needed most, and smells like deep fried food! My theory on this is that it's hydrogenated and the moisture content takes advantage of water's cooling ability.
So, all in all, I found it works great for:
1) Grinding of steel
2) Milling and turning on aluminum.
3) Drilling on aluminum.
It doesn't, however, work all that well for tapping in aluminum. The Alumtap worked way better for that.
John
One of the machinists at work said when he was in school, all of the machines had a tub of Crisco nearby and it worked really well.
Well, I few months back I picked up a jar and have been using it on the surface grinder. Great stuff for that! It stays in place and doesn't shoot all over the place (although it does tend to build up a bit in the wheel guard). The resulting slurry gives a mirror finish on the workpiece. And, it's easy to clean up when you're done.
Tonight I was doing a lot of aluminum turning on some large pieces and said what the heck... The Alumtap was getting everywhere and the vapors stunk! So, I grabbed the Crisco. Surprisingly, it worked VERY well! The tools kept very cool - even more so than with the Alumtap - and I got very nice finishes. When it gets hot, it just melts into the hot part of the work where it's needed most, and smells like deep fried food! My theory on this is that it's hydrogenated and the moisture content takes advantage of water's cooling ability.
So, all in all, I found it works great for:
1) Grinding of steel
2) Milling and turning on aluminum.
3) Drilling on aluminum.
It doesn't, however, work all that well for tapping in aluminum. The Alumtap worked way better for that.
John
