Saturday 12 March 2016

Making Machining Greener

So it's fair to say machining isn't always the greenest thing in the world so I try to make every little effort I can.. Mainly reusing materials as much as possible etc. One thing that used to bother me was the amount of wd40 type stuff I used to get through in the shed.. It's useful stuff for freeing seized stuff, penetrating and loosening rust, cleaning parts and also blowing swarf out of holes etc... However its expensive, uses hideous propellant's which I'm a bit sensitive too and definitely not green. So the solution! Well I've long known that diesel is an amazing penetrant so a mix of a few hundred ml of diesel and then a few drops of engine oil creates a mix that in my opinion is as functional as wd40 and I even occasionally use it as a cutting fluid. All you need to do is find a hand pumped spray bottle... I favour this princess hair detangler one as the vibrant pink is easy to spot in the clutter!

2 comments:

Andy from Workshophed said...

Perhaps a trigger based cleaning bottle could be adapted to blow air for your milling?

concretedog said...

Hmm yeah good idea...although in the shed I am always manual milling so just clear chips with a small brush. :)