Just curious, is it necessary to use a water-soluble cutting oil for finish reaming a short-chambered barrel?

To forestall any "Duh..." replies, yes I know you have to use something as a lubricant ! Just wondering if there are any alternatives to these hard to find products?

Thank you,

Todd

I've watched my gunsmith cut a lot of chambers, Todd, but never asked about the lube he used for the reamers. It LOOKED like and SMELLED like, regular heavy weight gear oil, like they might pump into the differential of your car. (I guess that is 90wt gear oil?) But I would suspect something finer is needed.

Todd---

It depends a little on who's barrel you're working with. Lothar-Walther stainless takes somes fairly special goop to cut clean.

I've used dark threading oil from the plumbing shop for 35 years, but I had to add a double glugs (precision gunsmithing measure) of Castrol Moly D cutting fluid to the generic dark for the L-W SS. It works for them all now.

BTW-- Never stick a reamer in the hole *without* something as a cutting lube.

Thank you for your replies.

I plan on checking with a couple of nearby machine shops, to see if I can talk them out of a quart or so of water soluble cutting oil for $5. If that doesn't work, I will try the plumber's thread cutting oil. I've heard of something called Tap Magic, which I think is a non-soluble cutting lubricant -- maybe I can find that.

I actually did find a couple of suppliers of the soluble oil in my area, the only problem being that I don't need 55 gallons of the stuff!

Thanks again for the pointers,
Todd

BTW -- the barrel is an A & B.

I did some research along these lines a year or so ago. What I found, after talking to and e-mailing several gunsmiths was that if any two used the same lube, it was an accident.

Near as I can tell, most any lube designed for cutting, reaming or tapping will work. Some may work better and most everone has a favorite.

For what it's worth, I use some nasty, high sulfer primordial ooze designed for threading, thinned a bit with solvent to work better with my pump.

Joe.

Forgive my ignorance but I don't see why it has to be water soluable? What is the benefit, if any of that? I would rather have something petroleum soluable.

It does not have to be water soluble. I am using a water soluble (By Fiske Refining) with EP additives. Normal mix ratio is 20 parts oil to one part water. I mix it at one part oil to two parts water. Can run it straight also, no water. The water is an economy move, some say the water has more evaporative cooling than straight oil. Anyway, my mix results in very smooth chambers, don't have to polish. All the major oil companies make both water soluble and straight (no water added) coolants. Names coming to mind include Texaco, Mobile, Unocal, Rustlick. I sometimes use Rigid "Dark Thread Cutting Oil",with some additives. As Jack said, depends on the barrel steel.

Below is what the other end of the barrel looks like when set up for the "Muzzle Flush Coolant System":



[ 06-26-2002, 07:10: Message edited by: John Ricks ]

John Ricks, THANK YOU. Very impressive rig you have there. I think I'd trust you to chamber a barrel for me any day of the week!

There is more to the system, including a through the spindle adapter so I may chuck the muzzle and put the breech end in the steady. And the steady is a special unit I made that works like a 4-jaw chuck, it does not mark a barrel like a regular finger steady, plus it will take a 8 sided barrel, and will straddle a front sight ramp when putting on brakes or crowning. I will post a few pics latter. The complete system saves a lot of time and gives a better finished product.

I have used Rigid Dark and Nu-clear and Sulflo. All did the job. I have some water soluble oil but have not used it for reaming. Regards, Bill.

The water-mixed stuff is used to aid cooling as well.For machining it's used in higher conctrations sp than 20/1.I bet there is more research done in tool cutting than in rifles.

Interestingly the most efficient milling cutters I've used were from Ingersoll and were air cooled. Actually the air was used primarily to clear the chips. Performance wise no other cutter came close, coolant or no.
As I said I've not used the water soluble oils for chambering mostly because I find the performance of the conventional oils to be satisfactory. Regards, Bill

I use Cool Cut which works really well for keeping the reamer from loading up. I have also used a sulfer cutting oil to cut chambers. Both work really well. Don't really see a problem with using water soluable oil they all work pretty well for cutting chambers.

Well, I just used the Rigid thread cutting oil for my hand powered finish reamer. Cutting went smoothly, chamber looks nice, and the reamer shows no evidence of dulling.

Thanks for all the input,
Todd

Shucks, we jes use good ol' SPIT here, The best jobs go to Howe 'cause he chews when he chambers:

"Howe chews when he chambers,
Cause it IS the best!
So come to us fer chamberin',
an' ferget the rest!

Sincerely,

Dewey , Cheetum , and Howe

Custom Gunsmiths

I'm set up like john Ricks with a through the barrel flushing system. However, I use a high pressure pump to flush the cutting fluid. I pump pure DO-Drill through the system and use a JGS reamer holder in the tailstock. My chambers come out looking so good I actually hate to brake the glaze. All the chips end up in a catch funnel and even a big chamber like the 470 MBOGO take only about 30 minutes to ream. I've tried water soluable cutting fluids, but like the finish I get with do-Drill.-Rob