Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a machinist, (now retired), for 23+ years, I can say that this is one of the most popular cutting oils in the trade and has been for at least 44 years and probably a lot longer than that, (I started as a machinist apprentice when I was 14 yrs. old). It’s a very high quality cutting oil and in machine shops, it's primarily used as a cutting oil for Tap and Die work as well as single point threading. However, it can work as a good cutting oil to do small metal cutting jobs in a DIY home operation. For instance, I bought it to use on a 1" hole saw as I cut through 6061 T6 aluminum and 1018 mild steel. The 'big plus' about Tap Magic is that it produces very little smoke as your tool and work surface are getting hot. In fact, it produces a lot less smoke than the 'heavy', dark, machining oil that was common in machine shops back in the 1970's. There were several 'heavy' oils typically used back then even though water-soluble oils were getting a good start. Tap Magic is expensive in small quantities but you only need a few drops as you cut. The TM oil contains special ingredients that, among other things, keep the tool and work surface cool. This is incredibly important when cutting most steels. If you’re cutting a mild steel like 4140, (non-heat-treated state), you can quickly work-harden the surface of the material to a state beyond the ability to be cut drilled, or machine in any way by any tool steel cutters at all! This is common if attention is not paid to your ‘feed and speed’, (surface footage rating), for the type of material you’re working with. If the work surface and tool get hot enough, you can wind up with a burnt cutting area that can easily exceed 45RC, C-scale, (very hard and usually, a job for carbide tooling would be used on that hardness rating). Tap Magic helps to keep that from happening but it still requires that you monitor your speed and the feed rate of your cut in such a way as to keep the cutting teeth of the tool under load and NOT allowing it to ‘rub’ which is the first step to a bad day. This product was considered a must have in most machine shops up to the year I got out for good, (2000). I have no doubt that it’s still a popular oil for job shops all over the country, if not the world. With that kind of endorsement, it’s safe to say that this oil is a 5 star product, hands down.