Whats a good cutting oil?

I just use what ever is handy and for me this seems to work. I am now using a mix of Tiki Torch oil (appers to be just deorderized kerosene), Marvel Mystery Oil & Trans Fluid. Made it up thin enough to use in a sray bottle and works for me on the lathe & drill press. All these oils were aquired for free or for penneys at yard sales.

With the gallon of Tiki Oil, Marvel Mystery Oil (smells nice) and Trans Fluid for .25 cents a qt. at yards sale I have enough to last for years. I am sure there is better but for the light duty work I do on my 1937 Craftsman 12" this works fine.
 
While we're on the subject, don't use Moly-D on copper alloys. Definitely stains. Great for stainless varieties, but never for brass or copper.
 
I just scored a case of Marvel Mystery oil for free. It looks like MMO will now be my go to cutting oil for a while 8^)
And I just dropped $27 on five gallons of kerosene 8^(

Randy
 
I've been playing with century-old ideas, like lard oil. Not used much today as a primary component because of cost and, if used in a circulating system, bacteria problems, but by hand application it works pretty good. I bought 5 lbs. at the grocery store, heated to melting, and let the components separate, which they do when cooled to room temperature. The white stuff that floats to the top is stearic acid, which afaik is not useful for anything, and the rest is a yellowish oil (oelic acid, I think) which is what you want. Just from my experiments: Mixed with mineral spirits, 1 part to 2 parts oil, great for steel. Mixed with turpentine in the same ratio, the best brass, copper, and aluminum bronze I've ever turned. Mixed with trichloroethane (hard to get, don't ask!) it does wonders on aluminum. Mixed into melted beeswax, a good tapping and reaming compound.

Probably more trouble than it's worth, but I was just curious; maybe those old guys back-when knew a thing or two.... I do ordinarily use a semi-synthetic diluted with water, which cools better, of course. I have circulating systems on my mill and lathe but they make a huge mess and I just use a squirt bottle. In the bandsaw I use Astro-Saw; it doesn't leave oily stuff to mess up welding, but it does eat the paint on my saw...
 
Cutting fluid; for the hobbyist or light duty crowd can be anything that keeps chips re-adhereing to parent material, or galling of high carbon/ HSS to parent material. Anything and everything imaginable has been tried with varied result. 'Oil' and 'lubricants' work by accident, surface tension chemistry they have is not what the doctor ordered, but the effects seem correct.

I'm away from home setting up property for new tenant. All kinds [around 500k lol] of wood screws, hinge screws, knock-down furniture fasteners, fixture screws, lag screws, carriage bolts....and some drilling/ tapping of post anchors.
I'm pleased with results of corn oil! I started with bar soap on the wood stuff, but got tedious very fast. Knowing petroleum products and wood not so compatible, I started thinking vegetable as next. Very noticeable results all round.

Proof of petroleum vs wood? There are many neglected box lock shotguns world wide. Being generally less valuable then other actions, didn't come cased with oil bottle & pick, less appropriate lubes found their way in. So they get gummy, inoperative, or just plain stuck shut. Out comes the WD-# and ol' Mr. I-Can-Do-It hoses down said firearm. Finally open, the innards get equal treatment, soaking bedding of stock to receiver. Sometime later the wood/ steel joint is less tight, the now spongy wood is loose, often the tang screws only stay in out of habit.
 
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