Quote Originally Posted by jimirwin View Post
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.