lathe tool help

Here we go again!

More tosh about carbide.

30 years ago, I bought a little Cowell's lathe and muddled on by with HSS (but, it has to be said, without a grinder and with tools dressed by hand when they blunted). I left one job in 1988 and, as part of my leaving pressy, was given a set of brazed carbide tools, a grinder and a green grit wheel for said tools. From the moment I started with the carbide tools, the quality of finish improved greatly. There is no way the Cowell's could be considered, either particularly rigid, or high speed (it wasn't the watchmakers one) and they worked fine. Some of those tools are still used today (but only very occasionally) and rarely did they need the services of the green grit wheel, or grinder.

Later on, I bought (still for the Cowell's) a set of 6mm indexable carbide tools, which used a triangular insert. Providing you don't throw then in your drawer when you put them away, they are reasonably robust. Ok, if you catch the tip against something hard, it will break, but usually, you get 3 goes at each one.

I now have a Myford S7 (reading this forum, again not considered either high speed or particularly rigid) and use carbide tips pretty much exclusively. At a couple of quid a pop (if you buy 10) they are still pretty good value. About the only thing I use HSS for is parting off.

I have made (to Mike Cox's design, but larger) a tangential toolholder and can understand why many people swear by them and use them as a "one tool for everything". If your lathe isn't equipped with a quick change toolholder, you might be better off trying a tangential tool - though the commercial one is very expensive.

From what I've read elsewhere on this forum, modern brazed tip tools can be of very suspect quality and I wouldn't recommend them to you. At least with indexable tools, should you end up with poor quality tips, you can try ones from another supplier or manufacturer. Carbide tooling meant for industrial machines will be unlikely to work well with a hobby machine - however that doesn't mean all carbide tooling should be dismissed out of hand.

Regards Tom

Edited By Tomfilery on 08/12/2017 16:50:40

Not all Michael. I'm a perfectly ordinary fanboy who just happens to be hopelessly in love with Tungsten. You must remember the song:

The French are glad to die for steel
They delight in fighting duels
But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive too-ewels
A HiSS on the hand
May be quite continental
But carbide is a boy's best friend.

Even my smileys are bigger and harder than anything an HSS chap would dare to post!

Dave

Dave

Have you been sniffing the cellulose thinners again?

Nurse..........

>scrutinises website terms and conditions<

hi all the kind folk who commented on my thread with condolences, very generous offers and most importantly the access to information from people in the know.

Tooling has to take a back seat for now as My mind has been else where since The fire i now have 10'000 jobs to do.

Unfortunately the setback i face has had a knock on effect to my time and budget to engineering but defiantly not knocked my spirit or dedication.

I was lucky the fire extinguisher saved the day and fire only claimed my hoarding of electronic tools and my components stock. The bodged mini cnc router needs rebuilding but the motorbikes remained untouched thank jeesuss.

The shed is toasted so ive bagged a £21 fleabay bargain 8x6" shed that i have dismantle move and re-assemble temporarily on my patio while i get recovered tomorrow . Probably in the bloody snow aswell

Meanwhile in the other shed my lathe ( similar to a myford ml4 ) is still not bolted to the bench much to my dismay . however if somebody could put 10 days in next for me week it'll be done in the next 3 days.

Just one more bit of good fortune to share is my phone decided to do a self destruct sequence so i'm using my wife's phone for photos and she lives for that device so i have not had chance to get anywhere near it to upload any photos yet.

please Bear with me i will be back on track soon .

Lee

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.