A quick read through and a lot of these problems are related to older types of cutting fluids labelled as crudes.

It does go as far as to say modern neat oils do not pose this threat.

Bazyle..

.and that was in the ladies

> scrotal carcinogen

I'll add that to my list of Shakespearian insults.

Neil

Please sir, when I started my apprenticeship in 1960 & for a long time afterwards Jeyes Fluid was used as biocide in the coolant, you would have been hard pressed to decide whether a coolant splash or a poke in the eye with a sharp stick was the more painful, happy days

Bob H

Don't know about best, not really done any test but I'll look on the tins tomorrow and see what it is.

Really scored a few years ago when the scrap man dropped a hint that he collected coolant from a company in Derby that had only been used once, then he went and died.

I called round and this company sold real high end production machines. A customer would ask them "Can you make this widget at the rate of 100 per minute and if you can we will buy the machines, Machines cost about 200 thou each.

So they would tool up a brand new machine, fill it up wth coolant, anything from 20 gallons to 70 gallons depending on size, demo it to the customer and he'd buy it.

They then drained the machine, packed it up and shipped it out.

The coolant was disposed of. I asked why they could not put it in the next machine and they said it may be contaminated.

So I used to go and collect these drums and sell them on, no shortage of people wanting 2 day old cutting oil.

Unfortunately I'm on my last 45 gallon drum at the moment and can't get any more.

Nice thing about neat il is although it's expensive it doesn't evaporate and no need to wipe down or clean up.

In fact if you know you are leaving the machine for any length of time just start the pump and wash the whole of the machine, never go rusty or have to worry about cleaning under slides.

Hi,another two pennorth on coolant matters, in the very large machine shop where I cut my turning teeth, all of the capstan,turret,centre,copying,automatic & vertical boring lathes, plus milling & grinding used soluble oil ( mystic ), this was dispensed through a network of pipes from a large central mixing tank so at least you could be sure that it started life at the correct mix, two things, personal hygiene,do not bathe in the damned stuff, also we used to remove rear toolposts or toolblocks on autos, clean underneath & liberally adorn the cross slides with Vaseline which kept the staining issues under control. As I never had dermatitis in almost 54 years I guess I must have washed once in a while. All gear cutting was done under flood cooling with heavy duty sulphurised oils which were a bit ferocious, it was mandatory that we each kept a Fairy Liquid bottle of this to use when screwcutting, very effective & you could see through it, bonus! In my twilight years I have obtained good results in my own workshop,where just a little lubrication of the cutting tool is required using chainsaw oil this is thyxotropic so it stays where you put it & also reverts to its original viscosity when not under pressure,I read about it on here. There were also 4 small mechanical automatic that ran on neat oil, the smoke generated had to be extracted through a large industrial version of a cooker hood, the machines certainly never went rusty, & one of them, a Herbert inch & a quarter bar auto ran for 41 years with little or no maintenance, so a lot be said for neat oils, I will say though that with a lot of model engineers lathes are plain bearing, & in those far off days I actually saw them immersing brass & copper coins in the oils for a week to see if they had any adverse effect. And now if I am not straying to far off topic, a cautionary tale, illustrating how things were before the politically correct fairies took over the world. I worked on a section of about 20 Herbert #7 turret lathes when I was about 18, at tea breaks we sat on benches crafted from planks laid across small upright oil drums, on this section worked a man whose personal hygiene left a great deal to be desired, we are talking gross! he rode to work on an ancient motor bike wearing wellingtons which he put under the bench we sat on & the smell was horrendous! I overheard a conversation between the chargehand setter & a nearby scallywag to the effect that something needed to be done about the offending footwear, every word punctuated by a stream of the most creative obscenities my young ears had ever heard. Shortly thereafter I saw said rascal fetch a tin of Jeyes Fluid from the cupboard & fill the boots half full with it. When the hooter went at dinner time, a small group of innocent bystanders saw one of the offending feet rammed into a wellie with considerable force, the nasty fluid had dissolved the rubber from the inside, the top half slid up his leg to above the knee amid a tidal wave of Jeyes. After dinner all hell broke loose & we got a visit from the Superintendent of the shop but apparently nobody had seen what happened as because it was such a nice day we went for a stroll down to the river to watch the fish. I really thought the super might have fit as he snarled at the culprit whom I was standing next to "I know it was you, you ****####££$$%". Still it wasnt all bad news, the hygiene related matter was resolved.

I have been impressed with Morris Oils neat cutting oil. The big advantage's are, it does not degrade (like soluble does) it lubricates the machine bedways, it does not itch my skin, it works with all common materials including copper.

On first using it I did notice that it dissolves all the muck and grime in tanks and tube work.

If you just want to try it without committing to a large drum of the stuff, it's available in smaller quantities.