DavHank
New member
The grade of aluminum makes a big difference so what works in one case, may not in another. Cheaper alloys of aluminum are harder to machine. When I was working as a machinist, we demanded 6061 aluminum for all our fabrications that required machining since the softer aluminums (while much cheaper) were harder to cut - we called it bubblegum aluminum. When you are tapping or threading with a die, soft aluminum will ball up on the cutting edge effectively making it act like a dull tool. Kerosene works pretty well, and some liquid soaps or detergent. On our machining centers, we used flood coolant mostly which was water and soluble oil with an anti-weld component. There is also a product called Tap Magic (one version just for aluminum) which worked great on softer aluminum. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/images/smilies/new/confused2.gif
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