Brass turning cutting fluid

W

Wm Cook

Member
Now that I retired I have a little more time and I'm getting back to cutting my own brass. Its been 20+ years since I did it with a K&M. Actually two K&M's. One for the first cut and a second for the final cut to get to .00088 for PPC BR shooting. Now I have a Neilson's Pumpkin and just finished wading through the "how to" in order to adjust depth and neck cut thickness. Its a lot easier this time since I'm shooting a .268 neck and I can make the cut in one pass. Before I launch I wanted to see if there was a general consensus on cutting fluid. Tony suggested a mix of Mobil one and STP, RCBS case lube, Hornady one shot plus others. Don Neilson suggest one quart 20W-50 synthetic to 15 ounces of STP. Dan Lilja uses a cutting fluid like Cool Tool. Couldn't find much on the search feature specific to cutting fluid/oil on the forum so I though I'd ask. I have the tooling set up on an end mill at about 500 fps. The Pumpkin is held level with a drill vice and a locking handle to hold it. Allows pretty easy centering of the case to the cutter. Thanks, Bill.
 
Am I doing it wrong?

I hate to sound uninformed, but I was not aware that the use of cutting fluid for turning necks was widespread.

I am turning using a K&M tool and an electric screw driver, which is very low speed. I use the proper expander mandrel and I lube the turning mandrel with imperial sizing wax every second or third case. Am I perhaps damaging my brass? I do things at a slow enough pace that nothing gets too warm.
 
Hey Big F

FBecigneul said:
I'm using one of my neck turning lathes turning at 140rpm. I use a Pumpkin for the 6mm and couple K&M for the 6PPC. I use Don Neilson's recommended 20w-50 Mobil synthetic and STP for mandrel lube. I don't have any major heat issues.
Click to expand...

you must be keeping your mouth closed? :)
 
So I'm going with Premium Metal Tapping Fluid - 16 FL. OZ. Threading and Cutting Oil since it was on Amazon since I could get it by Tuesday. We'll see how things go, In my heart the recommendation of sizing wax or Neilson's recommendation of one quart of 10 w 50 synthetic and 16 ounces of STP would be fine for most of us. But I'll try the cutting fluid first. The wording of cutting / oil seems and the way Tony phrased it convinced me that the proper cutting speed, coolant any fluid of a fluid may work. Wish me luck. Bill.
 
Turning Fluid

Wm Cook said:
So I'm going with Premium Metal Tapping Fluid - 16 FL. OZ. Threading and Cutting Oil since it was on Amazon since I could get it by Tuesday. We'll see how things go, In my heart the recommendation of sizing wax or Neilson's recommendation of one quart of 10 w 50 synthetic and 16 ounces of STP would be fine for most of us. But I'll try the cutting fluid first. The wording of cutting / oil seems and the way Tony phrased it convinced me that the proper cutting speed, coolant any fluid of a fluid may work. Wish me luck. Bill.
Click to expand...

The tapping fluid will work fine. A drop on the mandrel and a drop on the neck is all it takes
 
I have a couple tight neck barrels for a Panda varmint rifle.

To make sure I hit the desired clearance the brass is thinned down in two steps.
The first one removes all but about 0.0010 of whatever needs to come off.
The second removes that last little bit.

I can easily control down to 0.00010 (and yes, it is a PITA to set up things and measure).
 
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Now there's some Hi Tech

FBecigneul said:
I'm using one of my neck turning lathes turning at 140rpm. I use a Pumpkin for the 6mm and couple K&M for the 6PPC. I use Don Neilson's recommended 20w-50 Mobil synthetic and STP for mandrel lube. I don't have any major heat issues.
Click to expand...

Synthetic Oil and Andy Granatelli? WOW!

Pete
 
Just a drop...

Of RCBS case lube does the job for me along with my JACO cutting tool. I cut Savage 300 necks to .008 with one cut as part of forming 30HBR brass for my Hunter class rifle. Cheap and lasts a long time.
 
I sometimes do hundreds of cases. Buncha' turning tools.

I dip the casemouths in a thin layer of engine assembly lube https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-819...26499096&sr=8-1&keywords=engine+assembly+lube and drop the neckturning tool into a bowl of water between cases.

Everything stays the same temp, for hours and when I'm done I just blow out the turner with air and let it set to dry fully before putting it away.

'Course in my case, it never seems to be put away!

LOL
 
With a toothbrush and neck brush

With a toothbrush and neck brush I use NECO Molyslide paste. It has worked real well on the mandrel. Michael
 
I dunk my k & M with the .50 cal attachment in water between cases. It lobes well enough & keeps the mandrel cool & uniform.
 
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