Lubricants for thread cutting

No other single step buys as much tool life as cheaply as the right lubricant. It lowers friction, carries heat away, prevents cold welding and makes the difference between a clean thread and a torn one. VÖLKEL carries three forms: cutting oil N3S in 250 ml, cutting paste V4G in 120 g and cutting gel V4S in 120 ml.

Oil, paste or gel?

Cutting oil is the choice at the machine and in horizontal or through holes, where it spreads and flushes the chips out with it. Cutting paste stays where oil would run off: overhead, on vertical surfaces, during on-site assembly. Cutting gel sits between the two, clinging like paste and dosing like oil. Which form holds up where is covered in the article the perfect lubricant for thread cutting.

What the material asks for

For unalloyed steels a cutting oil emulsion or a cutting oil is enough, ideally with lubricity additives. For alloyed and stainless steels a highly activated thread cutting oil with special additives is appropriate. Aluminium, magnesium and other non-ferrous metals have cutting oils of their own. Grey cast iron is often machined dry or with compressed air.

Where it matters most

With nut taps, which cut continuously without interruption, and with forming taps, which displace the material instead of cutting it, lubrication is not an accessory but a precondition. Coated tools need it too: TiCN in particular is very hard but tolerates less heat and wants even cooling.

The matching tools are among the machine taps, hand taps and round dies.