[miljnor]

My experience is that if something does everything then it does nothing really well. But if they had samples I'd try it.

[Geof]

..... When I went to osha/epa school in California, even water was considered a hazardous substance.....

Water is a hazardous substance!

This is an extract from European Chemical News published in the 1970's.
-----------------------------------

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) has announced the discovery of a new fire fighting agent known as WATER (Wonderful And Total Extinguishing Resource). It is particularly suitable for dealing with fires in buildings, timber yards and warehouses, and is fairly cheap to produce. It is intended that quantities of about a million gallons should be stored in open pools or reservoirs near urban areas and installations of high risk.


WATER is already encountering strong opposition from safety and environmental groups. Professor Connie Barrinner has pointed out that if anyone immersed their head in a bucket of WATER, it would prove fatal in as little as three minutes. Each of ICI's proposed reservoirs will contain enough WATER to fill half a million two-gallon buckets. Each bucketful could be used a hundred times, so there is enough WATER in one reservoir to kill the entire population of the UK.

Did we know, asked a Fire Brigades spokesman, what would happen to this new medium when it was exposed to intense heat? It had been reported that WATER was a constituent of beer; did this mean that fireman would be intoxicated by the fumes?

The Friends of the Earth said they had obtained a sample of WATER and found that it made clothes shrink. If it did this to cotton, what would it do to men?

In the House of Commons, the Home Secretary was asked if he would prohibit the manufacture and storage of this new lethal material. A full investigation was needed, he replied, and the Major Hazards Group would be asked to report.

[Chriseg1]

My experience is that if something does everything then it does nothing really well. But if they had samples I'd try it.

True, but I would guess that Boeing developed these for very specific applications on their aerospace parts. But the manufacture who licensed them from Boeing probably through every possible operation and material they could on the label to increase sales.

They have worked well in our shop. I especially like the paste for manual mill and lathe work.

[gizmo_454]

We have a couple favorites for tapping. The first is Tap-Eeze, (not sure on the correct spelling). It is a dark red, almost black, tar-like substance. It works well as an all around tapping fluid/oil. When the going gets tough, though, we turn to a Shell product called Garia. Looking at it, you wouldn't think it would do much. But try it and you'd be amazed! The only thing I don't like, for either of these, is using them in combination with the regular water based coolant in the machine. They tend to contaminate the sump.

As far as tapping through something as mentioned above, GO FOR IT! I am sure there are many out there that have gone deeper, farther, faster, etc., but I have one part in particular in mind that should give you and your "former student with no experience", an idea what the machine is capable of. I periodically make some parts in 7075 aluminum that require two holes with 5/16-24 thread 2.100" deep. That is 2.100" of full thread engagement. It is a through hole.

Using a spiral point, extended length, necked down, OSG Hypro pulley tap for aluminum, our Mini Mill taps it in one shot. No questions asked. Of course, as mentioned above, using the largest drill allowable by the class of thread and length of engagement helps a bunch!

Peck drill a 1.5x diameter through hole in aluminum? HA! Tell the school-taught kid to get his money back!

Mike

[duenow]

I remember that green stuff, that was some kick ass tapping fluid. we used it alot in inco's and other nickles.
there was another tapping compound that was in a little bottle back then also. I think it was from hangstafers, I got like 15 bottles of that stuff and finished my last 1 2 years .

Delw

That green stuff is Anchorlube I still have 6 little bottles of it, great stuff.

[extanker59]

Water is a hazardous substance!

This is an extract from European Chemical News published in the 1970's.
-----------------------------------

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) has announced the discovery of a new fire fighting agent known as WATER (Wonderful And Total Extinguishing Resource). It is particularly suitable for dealing with fires in buildings, timber yards and warehouses, and is fairly cheap to produce. It is intended that quantities of about a million gallons should be stored in open pools or reservoirs near urban areas and installations of high risk.


WATER is already encountering strong opposition from safety and environmental groups. Professor Connie Barrinner has pointed out that if anyone immersed their head in a bucket of WATER, it would prove fatal in as little as three minutes. Each of ICI's proposed reservoirs will contain enough WATER to fill half a million two-gallon buckets. Each bucketful could be used a hundred times, so there is enough WATER in one reservoir to kill the entire population of the UK.

Did we know, asked a Fire Brigades spokesman, what would happen to this new medium when it was exposed to intense heat? It had been reported that WATER was a constituent of beer; did this mean that fireman would be intoxicated by the fumes?

The Friends of the Earth said they had obtained a sample of WATER and found that it made clothes shrink. If it did this to cotton, what would it do to men?

In the House of Commons, the Home Secretary was asked if he would prohibit the manufacture and storage of this new lethal material. A full investigation was needed, he replied, and the Major Hazards Group would be asked to report.

I loved it! But I bet you some moron is going to think it's a real article.

[Pondo]

A spiral point tap (not to be confused with a spiral fluted tap) is also called a gun tap - it shoots the chips ahead of it. There is no need to chip break it if you are tapping through. It can actually backfire on you. If the chips get wedged up in the flutes the tap can break on the CCW chip break.
Reminds me when I came out of trade school. My teacher said to use coolant whenever it's available. I kept using it on 2-4" face mills and thermal cracking (chipping) the inserts. Once I tried running it dry the insert life went up about 10 times.
Also, a suggestion:
If you are tapping a lot of holes in aluminum, I'd go with a forming tap. The threads are stronger and there's no chips to deal with. They are especially good for blind holes and they last forever. Just be sure to drill the correct diameter for the tap - they are NOT the same tap drill diameter as regular taps. Too small and you will snap the tap off, too large and you will have problems getting a bolt to start in the hole and cross threading becomes a problem.

[STS_John]

A spiral point tap (not to be confused with a spiral fluted tap) is also called a gun tap - it shoots the chips ahead of it. There is no need to chip break it if you are tapping through. It can actually backfire on you. If the chips get wedged up in the flutes the tap can break on the CCW chip break.
Reminds me when I came out of trade school. My teacher said to use coolant whenever it's available. I kept using it on 2-4" face mills and thermal cracking (chipping) the inserts. Once I tried running it dry the insert life went up about 10 times.
Also, a suggestion:
If you are tapping a lot of holes in aluminum, I'd go with a forming tap. The threads are stronger and there's no chips to deal with. They are especially good for blind holes and they last forever. Just be sure to drill the correct diameter for the tap - they are NOT the same tap drill diameter as regular taps. Too small and you will snap the tap off, too large and you will have problems getting a bolt to start in the hole and cross threading becomes a problem.

Best advise is above
Use either a GUN tap to push chip in front of the tap (in thru hole only, of course) or Roll tap. Roll taps are stronger, no flute to reduce tap body diameter. And, Roll tapping actually gives you a stronger thread by cold forming the thread profile, instead of cutting it. Roll taps also last much longer than cutting taps. We have used some crazy high SFM rates for Roll tapping

My $.02

The Green Stuff (referenced in a post above) I used to use for alum is A-9, is still avaiable. I still use it for field machining applications of alum. Really great stuff, I think MSC carries it