Needle Valve Sight Gravity Drip Feed Oiler - What tubing have you used?

[jimirwin]

I have not used this for this purpose. There's reasons these are used to supply lube to ways & spindles, AND that misters are used to supply cutting fluids to cutting tools. Either way you have to get the fluid in sufficient quantity to where the tool meets the workpiece. It takes very little fluid in just the right place to do the job. Flooding is OK IF you have a way to control/collect the excess. Misters cool the work far better and consume far less fluid in a very diluted form (typically in water).

Still, I suppose the drip method could/should work IF you can get fluid to the cutting edge.

[Metalmuncher]

It takes very little fluid in just the right place to do the job.

I agree wholeheartedly!

The Re-Li-On fluid I use is fairly thin in consistency, but it adheres well to either a flat surface, hole being drilled or tapped, or a spinning piece on the lathe. As my current method has always been to put the fluid in place, then do the cutting, the cutter enters the middle of the adhering fluid to make the cut. So it seems prudent for me to have the drips laying down just ahead of the cutter as it advances.

Flooding/recovery and misting seem a great idea for high-speed production runs, where the overall cost of using those systems is billed to a customer. For one-off hobby jobs like I do, a bottle of cutting oil lasts me a very long time. And many operations don't require cutting oil at all.