Best steel for home made tooling?

[jdedmon91]

Starting on a custom boring bar holder for my QCTP. I received a boring bar, from Soild Rock Machine. I like to have my bars set up in each of their own block, so I machine custom block so the boring bar is supported 360%. Also it won’t be much thicker than a standard block, so it’s close to the tool post.

I have a piece of A36 that I got out of the scrap bin at the local Metal Supermarket. So today I sawed of a piece off today and squared it up, so I’m working on finishing it up. I post pictures when I finish, and get a video together on it.

If I get material inexpensively I’ll use it. It’s plenty strong enough for my BXA size tooling.


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[Ulma Doctor]

steels with an L in the numbers, i.e. 11L14, 12L13,& 12L14 are free machining steels.
they contain lead, they are NOT suitable for hardening, or welding for that matter.

but, i have made many tools form 12L14. it is wonderful to machine

most times we want tough tools.
for the sake of argument, most steels are suitable enough for the purposes of general tool making (sans esoteric demands)

don't confuse hardness and toughness, they are 2 different properties
you can make steel hard like glass, but it has to be tempered for it to become tough

the best steel is whatever you can get a hold of.

i have made many projects from steels that i have no idea of the composition- "Unkownium"

if you have carbide inserts or brazed carbide, you can get through most materials- steel or otherwise.

 

[jdedmon91]

Follow up to my post. Just finished the tool block up for my gifted boring bar. Not bad for a hunk of steel out of Metal Supermarkets scrap bin. I think it was A36

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[bakrch]

We use a lot of 17-4PH in the energy industry, so we tend to use that since there is so many bar ends laying around. Can't tell you how many 2-3" diameter boring bars we've made (1/2 shank tooling with cpgm inserts typically used to reduce cutting forces), but they work really well. Most are treated H1075, but there are a few H900 and I can't really tell much of a difference in the performance, just the 900 is more of a pain to drill into.