Welding Tips and Tricks

Can anyone recommend a welding-friendly cutting lube? I'm using something called Lubri-Cut, only problem is washing the stuff off before I weld. Seeing as it's wax-based, it doesn't just wash away with water or alcohol.

I do a lot of cutting and shaping and drilling on some of my pieces before I weld them and am just looking for something that's easy to clean off.

THKS.

The best cutting fluid depends upon the metal. What’s great for stainless isn’t really great for carbon steel, but works ok for aluminum. Aluminum can be cut with something completely worthless for carbon steel, and won’t do a thing for stainless…

So, perhaps a better suggestion is something good to use as a cleaner/ prep for welding after using any cutting fluid? For that, acetone almost always gets my vote. It cleans, degreases, and evaporates. Perfect for all types of welding. And unlike Brake Cleaner which also works, but you have to be careful to use the non-Chlorinated type, acetone only comes in one flavor.

Yup.. Either use a normal cutting oil and clean with acetone to really get it off the part before welding, or check out some water soluble cutting fluids which can in some cases also be used 'neat' and will wash off more readily with just water and possibly some detergent.

Any residue left will cause issues with contaminating the weld puddle, so as such I'd say there's no 'welding friendly' cutting oil that would need no cleaning to fully remove.

LIke cj737 mentioned, you'll have to check the suitability of any cutting fluid as far as the base material you're machining separately. Different metals can require quite different fluids, especially if you're not CNC'ing with massive flood-coolant amounts, so you're relying more on the chemical composition of the small amounts you put on the work and cutter to do the work for you.

Bye, Arno.

Thanks to both of you for that. It hadn't occurred to me that cutting/drilling oils/fluids could even vary with the metal being used. There you go. Learn something new every day.

I'll go with acetone. It probably doesn't dissolve beeswax-based cutting oil but I'll just change to something that acetone will cut. This beeswax stuff is really nice for cutting but man, cleaning it off is time-consuming and trying to weld with it still on (even a trace) makes for a bad day.

ekbmuts wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2024 2:27 pm Thanks to both of you for that. It hadn't occurred to me that cutting/drilling oils/fluids could even vary with the metal being used. There you go. Learn something new every day.

I'll go with acetone. It probably doesn't dissolve beeswax-based cutting oil but I'll just change to something that acetone will cut. This beeswax stuff is really nice for cutting but man, cleaning it off is time-consuming and trying to weld with it still on (even a trace) makes for a bad day.

if its actually beeswax, acetone will clean out easily. odds are its padded with something else as beeswax is expensive.

And I’d only use “beeswax” for aluminum. For carbon, a high sulphur content oil is much better. I buy the pints of it at the big box store, plumbing aisle, where the black pipe is sold and you can locate the threading accessories. It’s cheap, works really, really well, and wipes off like a dream.

For stainless, I eat the expense of using Walter StainlessCut. It’s pricey as heck, works unbelievably better than anything I’ve ever used, and also cleans easily. Their CoolCut is pretty decent for drilling/milling of carbon and aluminum though (if you use a mist or solvent feed).

Sorry, didn't notice you had both responded.

I too doubt that it's real beeswax. Partially because acetone doesn't touch it.

On the high sulphur content oil, any chance you can post a link? Sounds promising.

THKS.

https://www.doordash.com/browse/merchan ... &utm_term=

This product works well. Buy it anywhere-

Perfect!

Try some AnchorLube. It is water based & I really like it. I have seen it thinned down with water & used as a mist type coolant for milling.

Cleans up easy with water or you can let it dry & it flakes right off.

https://anchorlube.com/

Aluminum parts that I weld have mostly been cut with a CNC router. I don't tell them what to use, but it smells exactly like paraffin wax, so I'm assuming that's what it is.
It seems to clean up pretty well with a combination of 99% isopropyl alcohol followed by 120 psi from an air blow gun.