Titanium cutting fluid

[Geoff Flato]

I thought I'd share a trick I picked up from an old machinist that makes titanium so much easier to drill and tap.
Chlorinated brake cleaner. It must be the chlorinated stuff in order to work. It sounds strange, but compared to 6 commercial cutting fluids (the various ones I had around my shop, tap magic, rapid tap, A9, coolcut, pipe threading oil, ect) there was absolutely no contest. A #0-80 tap took noticeably less effort to turn, and also didn't make any of the noises that usually signal a broken tap.
I had shared this trick with Frank Niro about a week ago, and after trying it himself suggested I put it out here for all of the community.

A few safety notes I'll add. This isn't the safest stuff, and isn't a use suggested on the label. Insure that the parts are bone dry (preferably let sit for a day or more) before welding, soldering, ect
The perchloroethylene in the brake cleaner will break down into phosgene if heated, and that is not something you want to mess with.
Grinding is fine as long as the parts are not wet with it.
The tiniest little drop of it is all it takes to make a world of difference.

For anyone who remembers it, brake cleaner works about as well as the old heavily chlorinated tapping fluids that were taken off the market a while back.

Hope this helps make titanium bit easier to work with for some of you!

 

[John Stubley]

I found this post on CPF.

UPDATE on Moly Dee. So far I've only tapped a dozen or so holes in scrap pieces of titanium but the results are amazing. Certainly part of this is a brand new powdered metal tap with geometry designed for stainless/titanium/etc. & part is due to the Moly Dee. Tapping torque is a fraction of what it was before.

The first hole concerned me because it was so easy to tap, something that happens when an oversized drill is used. I double checked the drill & it read 3/32" (.0938") which yields about a 60% thread. That's my standard drill size for Ti & SS as it greatly reduces tapping torque & tap breakage. The remainder of my test holes were equally as easy.

Method of application was to fill a wide mouth pill bottle half full of Moly Dee & dip the drill or tap into the lube while the tool was spinning. Bad idea as little black droplets were hurled in a radial pattern for about 12". Then switched the machine off between lube applications.

So far I'm pretty impressed.

John.

 

[mete]

Have any of you done a side by side test of these lubes vs officially suggested ones ??

 

[Geoff Flato]

Have any of you done a side by side test of these lubes vs officially suggested ones ??

That is exactly what I did. It noticeably outperformed the best tapping fluids available. Most tapping lube recommendations are absolute BS, and commerical tapping fluid is almost always the best option. This is an exception to that rule though.
Half of the tapping fluids I tested against specifically mentioned titanium on the label, and with the same tap on the same workpiece took noticeably more force to turn.

 

[mete]

There certainly lots of info on cutting fluids for titanium .Much of that is for production. I would rather stay away from harmful fumes etc .

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Halangonted hydrocarbons are always kinda funny. Stick a Chlroine or a bromine on something and they always seem to work WAY better "Halagonated solvents are much stronger, chlorinated tapping fluid is better, brominated catalysts work more efficiently" to bad they are all pretty damn unsafe!

 

[Geoff Flato]

Mete, I'm not sure if you actually read my post or not.
I've heard enough wild recommendations for tapping fluids to usually roll my eyes whenever I hear someone suggest something other than a commercial cutting fluid.
If this recommendation hadn't come from a machinist in the aviation industry I've worked with for a few years now, I wouldn't have even tried it.
Brand new #0-80 tap, 64thou titanium from AKS, same size pilot for each hole. I tried it against relton rapid tap, relton A9, safetap, original tap magic, Walter coolcut, both flavors of ridgid pipe threading oil, and soluble oil coolant. Two holes for each, and both the workpiece and tap were cleaned between fluids. The brake cleaner was actually the last one tested, so it definitely wasn't a case of the tap being sharper for it.
The test was also done in a tapping fixture to avoid the variable of getting it started straight.

It was not a negligible difference, the brake cleaner was the easiest to turn by a large margin. It also had the smoothest feel while cutting, and inspection under magnification showed the best surface finish of the threads and absolutely zero galling.
I posted this here on Frank Niro's suggestion after he tried it and saw how well it worked. I wasn't planning on sharing it until he recomended I did, expecting this exact response from at least a few people.


You're more than welcome to try it for yourself if you don't believe it

 

[Frank Niro]

Why beat this guy down? Every time we have an alternate way that is better to do something we have people jump in and want to disclaim the results.
This stuff is used to clean break shoes and tools. To do this it has to be sprayed out in huge amounts. How many have died or been injured?
If you don't like it then don't use it !!! With the efficiency it seems to provide with so very little it MAY be avoiding bad stuff in any of those other taping fluids.
This sort of reminds me of back when I introduced the glass platen. I heard so much crap from those that never even tried it.The glass was sure to shatter and makers would be so badly cut they would soon be on the floor bleeding to death.
Boy does this work as a cutting fluid for drilling titanium !!!!
Frank

 

[Geoff Flato]

Keep in mind also that recommended practice and best practice aren't always the same...
Try telling someone faced with particularly stubborn press work or turning large shafts with a dead center not to use the can of white lead they've got tucked away..