Carbide Tipped Lathe Center

rwm

Robert
H-M Lifetime Diamond Member
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Mar 25, 2013
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I wanted to buy a carbide tipped lathe center when I was struck by inspiration!

I already have several of these carbide drills bought at auction:

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The MT2 shank is steel with a carbide drill brazed on. I figured if if I could cut most of the drill off I could grind the remainder in to a carbide center. I tried to cut it with an angle grinder...HA! No chance. But carbides strength is its weakness. I was able to easily break the drill off with a hammer. I chipped it down to about 3/4" long.
Then I put it into my lathe and attacked it with my shop made tool post grinder.

Here is the rough fractured end being ground by a Chinese diamond wheel.

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Some progress:

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Finished:

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The grinding took about an hour to remove all that carbide but it came out well!

I had another thought: If you have an old fractured carbide drill etc. and you have an old worn out drill or reamer that fits your tailstock, you could drill a hole in the latter and braze in the former. Then grind the component into a nice carbide center!

Robert
 
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Isn't great to make your own tooling. Nice job!
 
And the learning process. Still coughing from the carbide dust. I have learned to turn on the dust collection next time!
R
 
I read about tungsten poisoning. Pretty rare actually. I thought this was really cool:

Acute poisoning-"This is an extremely rare presentation. Much of the information on human toxicity comes from case reports of a purported acute toxic reaction to tungsten dissolved in alcoholic drinks following a tradition of French army artillery recruits drinking wine/beer which had rinsed a recently fired gun barrel. Introduction of tungsten into the alloy of the barrel was thought to be the cause of this novel poisoning event."

Bottom line- don't rinse your rifle barrels in wine and then drink it!
Robert
 
What is the advantage of a carbide center vs standard tool steel?
 
What is the advantage of a carbide center vs standard tool steel?

Less wear and won't gall or get damaged as easy as a steel dead center especially if you are spinning a part on the dead center like in the old days.

I use high pressure center lube with my centers. Ever since I started using it I've noticed I don't get marks or scoring on my centers like I sometimes used to in the past.
 
I read about tungsten poisoning. Pretty rare actually. I thought this was really cool:

Acute poisoning-"This is an extremely rare presentation. Much of the information on human toxicity comes from case reports of a purported acute toxic reaction to tungsten dissolved in alcoholic drinks following a tradition of French army artillery recruits drinking wine/beer which had rinsed a recently fired gun barrel. Introduction of tungsten into the alloy of the barrel was thought to be the cause of this novel poisoning event."

Bottom line- don't rinse your rifle barrels in wine and then drink it!
Robert

Oh I'm POSITIVE it was the small ammount of tungsten alloyed with the barrel and not anything else... lol
 
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