What do you use for cooling fluid

[KSky]

I am cutting 1/4 aluminum pieces, right now I use veggie oil that
I just spray on. Is there something I can get locally or mix up
that works well? I am thinking of building my own spray cooler.

[Chris D]

One of the best lubricants I have found for cutting aluminum is WD40. Just spray some on the cutter and workpiece, and cut like you normally would. It will greatly reduce chip welding. However, this is not a "coolant" perse. In other words, you won't be using it in a "Flood" coolant system, so you will need to be mindful of your speeds so as to not generate too much heat.

I use the WD40 when cutting aluminum on the following machines/operations with good results:

Drilling
Reaming
Tapping
Turning/boring
Milling
Sawing - band
Sawing - circular saw (for fast rough cuts)

Chris

[jerber]

WD40 is probably the best but I also had good results with dishwash liquid.
The downside of using dishwash liquid is that if want to use it in a spray cooler then you'll get a lot of bubbles .

[nervis1]

Before I had flood I used to buy a 1 gal jug of Mobil soluble oil mix 10:1 and use a spray bottle, use a little acid brush to clear chips. That would last a long time and was pretty cheap, did not cause rust.

[miljnor]

Back in the day before CNC and everyone had their own magic fluid. diesle #2 worked best on aluminum and steel we used a sulfer based oil (which i belive screw/swiss machines still use).

although it smells and is slightly flamable.