Need help with tooling for new lathe

I feel like you limit yourself if you don't embrace the whole enchilada that is machining. And a big part of that is understanding how to sharpen your tooling yourself. It does require skill, time and it does branch off of the main goal of actually doing the machining but it is crucial especially to the home shop IMHO. It may seem like more outlay at first but if you don't want to be tossing tools all the time like a jobber shop does, it will save you time and $$$ in the long run. Not to mention being able to custom grind when you find a configuration you like and works for your machine. Not to mention not having to stock extra's or getting stuck when all you need is to sharpen a bit.

Benmychree has a point about the new bench grinders but I feel like a major part of the problem is the new wheels. Even US made as I went through that whole thing. Even Baldor grinders have problems with balance and wobble. So you can expect to use your tools to make and repair tools as part of machining. I ended up finding a great setup for balancing the wheels on my new 8" grinder on Amazon which went from scaring me to death to use and shaking the whole bench to running smooth as glass. It has more than made itself useful for rough sharpening HSS while my 6" Baldor clone is set up for carbide and a Deckle clone for sharpening HSS endmills, drills and HSS lathe bits.
 
talvare said:
I would second what hman said above. I have several of the Mesa threading and boring tools and have had good luck with them. Their prices aren't too bad and they have a pretty good selection to get you started. They also have a good selection of different shapes of carbide inserts for various different tasks which in some cases allows you to use the same tool with different inserts for things like threading and grooving. When I first got my lathe I bought several of the Chinese brazed carbide lathe tools to start with (plus I had quite a bit of HSS) and that turned out to be a big mistake. I'm sure there are differences in quality from different manufacturers, but the ones I bought were junk.

Ted
Click to expand...

Hello Ted,

I appreciate you and hman's recomendation. It looks like their boring bars and threading tools have flat sides on them as well. Can I put these in a normal tool holder or would I need a specific boring bar holder? I'm assuming they have flat sides so they will screw down in a typical tool holder.

Thanks,
Greg
 
C-Bag said:
I feel like you limit yourself if you don't embrace the whole enchilada that is machining. And a big part of that is understanding how to sharpen your tooling yourself. It does require skill, time and it does branch off of the main goal of actually doing the machining but it is crucial especially to the home shop IMHO. It may seem like more outlay at first but if you don't want to be tossing tools all the time like a jobber shop does, it will save you time and $$$ in the long run. Not to mention being able to custom grind when you find a configuration you like and works for your machine. Not to mention not having to stock extra's or getting stuck when all you need is to sharpen a bit.

Benmychree has a point about the new bench grinders but I feel like a major part of the problem is the new wheels. Even US made as I went through that whole thing. Even Baldor grinders have problems with balance and wobble. So you can expect to use your tools to make and repair tools as part of machining. I ended up finding a great setup for balancing the wheels on my new 8" grinder on Amazon which went from scaring me to death to use and shaking the whole bench to running smooth as glass. It has more than made itself useful for rough sharpening HSS while my 6" Baldor clone is set up for carbide and a Deckle clone for sharpening HSS endmills, drills and HSS lathe bits.
Click to expand...

Is there a grinder you recommend? Do these grinders have specific plates you can set at angles or are your free handing the grinding? I looked up Baldor and Deckle and found some for mills that looked like they had chucks to put the mill bits in but didn't really see anywhere to put a flat piece to grind. Also they were quite expensive but I suspect thats why you said you had clones. Any thoughts on who makes a decent clone?

Thanks,
Greg
 
fishingreg said:
Thanks mikey and mmcmdl,

The lathe is a PM1340GT. I have a BXA tool post. My current tool holders (I only have 5 to start) will hold up to 5/8". The boring holder is 3/4". I will need to get more tool holders but at this point, I have not made my first chips so I'm just looking for a starting point. I can only imagine how big the world will seem once I start cutting.. I just don't want to buy tools that I find out I will never use because of something that I had no idea about at this stage. For now I will just be playing for the most part and maybe making some knobs and screws and such just for practice so I can learn.

Ultimately I will be turning, facing, parting, making slight tapers, and making tenons and threading. I intend for a chuck of the work to be done on stainless barrels for my own use. Most threads will be OD threads but I will also make thread protectors which of course will be ID threads. I appreciate the brazed carbide tooling suggestion, I had not looked into those and did not know you could stone them back to a nice cutting surface. I will check into that as well.

Am I to assume the carbide is better for internal threading because its much stiffer and can be a narrower tool to fit into tight places but not have the flex that narrow HSS would?

Thanks again
Click to expand...

Pick up an inexpensive inserts tool set. While not optimal, and isn’t what I use it will get you up and running. I use large tools on my lathe wit cut dovetails to fit the QCTP

Here is my tooling set up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
fishingreg said:
Is there a grinder you recommend? Do these grinders have specific plates you can set at angles or are your free handing the grinding? I looked up Baldor and Deckle and found some for mills that looked like they had chucks to put the mill bits in but didn't really see anywhere to put a flat piece to grind. Also they were quite expensive but I suspect thats why you said you had clones. Any thoughts on who makes a decent clone?

Thanks,
Greg
Click to expand...
It's funny Greg that not until you responded and wanted a recommendation, did I really reflect on how involved that all was. Looking back the single unit that made the biggest difference was getting a used stereo microscope. And it was the most recent. I'm wondering if I could have gotten by with the scope and some good hones for my lathe bits. But most of what I use is HSS but the last project was sharpening a Chinese brazed carbide boring bar. Without the scope I would have been flying blind as usual and in this case it took the 8" bench grinder to grind back the support around the carbide, then the Baldor clone green stone to rough the carbide, then the diamond wheel on the other side to semi finish. Final was the diamond hone by hand all while checking on the scope because direction of grind has a huge effect on what the edge looks like. Same with honing.

Most of my stuff I've gotten off Craigslist and CL can be drastically different in different parts of the US. The Baldor clone is a Chinese made Central Machinery/HF that I found on CL for $130. It came with a high $$ diamond wheel on one side and the stock cheapo green stone on the other. They don't often come up but neither do Baldor's and the few Baldor tool grinders have been in LA or SF for $400+. Of course the HF had its problems like balancing the wheels and on one side the arbor needed to be trued to take out the wobble. But I got the process off YouTube where the guy was having to do it to a Baldor so it's not just knock offs.

I started out with trying to get a bench grinder as my old one had died. I went 8" because I thought bigger is better and CL was full of imports for basically what I could buy new for. I got a 8" Ryobi and bolted it down and started it up and it shakes like a jackhammer! The wheels are out of round, they wobble a total mess. I take it back and get another and same deal. Forums on the net are full of this same experience. Checked the shafts and almost no runout. But the arbors are junk and the wheels not true. Bought a set of Norton wheels and they are just as bad! So I do a search and find on Amazon Oneway balancing system. Yeah, it's the same price as the grinder I just bought but it's still cheaper altogether than one of the expensive bench grinders. Is it better, maybe not, but it fixed the problem and the cheap looking little balancer unit has come in handy like for balancing the wheels on the Baldor clone. I'm not trying to frighten, I'm just saying to help you and others avoid the pitfalls.
 
fishingreg said:
Hello Ted,

I appreciate you and hman's recomendation. It looks like their boring bars and threading tools have flat sides on them as well. Can I put these in a normal tool holder or would I need a specific boring bar holder? I'm assuming they have flat sides so they will screw down in a typical tool holder.

Thanks,
Greg
Click to expand...

Greg,
Your assumption is correct. You can use those flat sided boring bars in a conventional lathe tool holder or in a boring bar tool holder.
Ted
 
There is a huge thread on grinding tool bits. https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/models-for-grinding-hss-lathe-tools.62111/ It will tell you everything that you need to know.

I am still a newbie at this. When I first started I didn't have a bench grinder. I used a 4" Makita grinder to grind tool bits. When I look back those early tool bits were beyond ugly and barely worked. Moved up to a 6" dunlap bench grinder that I found at a garage sale for a very reasonable price. Bits got better but still not great. Next was a delta 1x42 belt sander that I found in a thrift store. What an incredible difference this made in grinding tool bits. I could now easily and quickly grind any shape and style of tool bit that I needed. Even with the right equipment and some practice you will still occasionally grind a tool bit that doesn't work. When I was making an ER32 chuck for the spindle on my lathe I needed to cut an internal thread. I wanted to have a grove to end the thread in. Not matter what I tried I could not get the grooving tool bit to cut. I finally gave up on the groove and carefully cut the thread stopping in the exact same spot with each pass. The moral of this is don't get discouraged if a tool bit that you grind does not work.

Have fun with your lathe. Don't be afraid to ask even the dumbest question. We have all been there and the folks on here will help you solve any problems that you run into.
 
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