Centap cutting oil

A question for the team, does anyone remember Centap cutting oil ? Back in the 1960/70’s it was widely used and very effective for mild steel, carbon steels etc. It had a strong aromatic smell. There was one downside it would stain the machine if not cleaned of after use. Used neat from the drum.

It seems to have disappeared from sale, no idea who the supplier was but it would be interesting to know what was in the concoction?

Another lube we used was Coconut grease dissolved in Carbon Tet — I know shock horror but it was again a great lube for “difficult” steels

John

I don’t and don’t know, but likely similar to the carbon tetrachloride product - no longer considered a safe product from a health point of view. That or better (economically/effectively/safety) products appeared on the market.

RapidTap had to have its composition changed to remove 1.1.1 trichloroethane. It had a strong aromatic smell as well.

Martin C

For what it's worth I use coconut oil on pretty much everything. It's especially good as a tapping aid on titanium. The way I use it (as OIL) it needs to be kept warm, at room temperature it's solid.

cheers

Bill

Do you get any staining on slides etc when using the oil?

Cheers John

Edited By Bill Pudney on 05/06/2021 23:57:42

I use a jollop mixed up to Guy Lautard's recipe. It is a mix of olive oil, white spirit and genuine Linseed oil, in proportion of 3 - 2 - 1. Smells rather nice but more importantly, it works very well for drilling and tapping small holes. Just use neat cutting oil for other machining. No stains from either. A tall narrow - sided ex - salad cream bottle with a strip of (marked) paper on the outside, serves as a measuring/mixing 'jug' and then pour it into a small (50ml) plastic container with a screw on lid/spout. It bears a label, "Palette ", having previously been used by late wife's hair colouring manufacturers.

Hi it’s the Centap that stained not the Coconut dissolved in CTC I suppose I should said two questions on the original post.

Bill P interesting about warming the Coconut to make it liquid, it was of course why we dissolved it in CTC now a definitive NO !

I do wonder what was in Centap that made it so effective? Unfortunately I can’t even remember who the makers were and zip on the Internet !

John

An interesting aside, I saw a programme on TV about some sort of rebels who had machine guns and they used Coconut oil to lubricate them quite effectivelly, they had no access to machine oil or gun care stuff.