Not a 'spert, but...

Has anyone tried plain water as a coolant/cutting agent?
In this case, given no real drilling depth (.060 wall) or heavy chip load,
water might be able to do it, de facto solving the cleanup problem.

I know--well, I *think* I know--that when grinding some SS dowel pins on a
belt sander, dipping the pins in water seemed to *greatly* increase material
removal.

Have you thought about taking delivery of the tubing unpolished, and having
it polished after the holes are drilled? Then, polishing might act to
deburr as well.
And you could then focus on the best-performing coolant.

And what about deburring, if drilling the polished mat'l?

In this case, the pump would not seem to be critical, as volume, not
pressure, is more of an issue, and not much of one at that if the holes are
small. A little Giant centrifugal submersible?? $50??

Triethanolamine as cutting fluid?? wow.....
What about the std soluble oils?
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Greg Postma" wrote in message
...
I am currently setting up a machine to drill holes in polished 304
stainless tube. This machine will make about 100,000 holes per year through
one side of 3/4" by .060" tubing. To ensure long tooling life, I need to
cool the bits. The tubing is prepolished and this is decorative stainless
(so the appearance must be flawless after we drill). I am looking for a
coolant that is easy to clean off the finished parts before they are
assembled. Any one have any ideas?

BTW I am not tackling this project alone, I am working with Joe Agro Jr
and his dad on this project.
Also anyone one with first hand knowledge of good coolant pumps? I need
one of those also.

Thanks in advance
Greg Postma