Carbide tooling

[Tozguy]

As a newbie carbide tooling looked like a way to dodge the tedious grinding of 1/2 '' HSS. For the cost of learning the ropes with carbide (brazed and inserts) I could have bought a decent grinding set up for HSS.
Grinding HSS can be fun when you have the right equipment.
Then I tried the eccentric engineering tangential holder and after a few days of using it declared that the war was won.
Now I use the TT holder for most outside cutting, carbide inserts for threading and boring (Mesa Tool), and home ground HSS when special form tools are needed.
No matter how you cut it you are faced with spending some money. Have a look at the eccentric engineering site while you are at it and enjoy your new hobby.

 

[tmenyc]

David,
I'm not far ahead of you, and had zero experience before I started, almost a year ago. With all the confidence of near complete ignorance, but with a head that relishes a new challenge, I went Mikey's way. Got the Precision Matthews 3/8" SCLCR/CCMT, CCGT set and a grinder, and now finally have the carbide AND a good, and expanding, set of HSS tools that are working well for me in 12L14 steel and a lot of softer stuff I need for my niche work. I use the carbide for roughing cuts, particularly in removing the skin, and at my highest speed, 1440 rpm, and at higher feeds. I also got, again per Mikey's recommendation, Micro100's solid carbide boring and internal threading tools, and they're a treat to use, like a fine dessert. He and others have also been on the mark in telling me to try every combo of speed and feed on scratch stuff to see what works, and my old Logan definitely tells me what works.
Tim

 

[lpakiz]

Try this. I searched EBay with “carbide insert lathe tool holder”
Very cheap tooling. I bought several variations and they work great!

 

[DavidR8]

I'm looped in on the HSS tooling mega-thread, in fact I received the models yesterday so I hope to get in a bit of time this weekend sharpening my grinding skills

As a newcomer to the obsession, I'm really interested in building up a base of skills that will serve me as my skills and abilities expand.

 

[Dan_S]

Imo when it comes to inserts and hobby equipment what maters most, is the type of insert, and the chip breaker geometry.

The Major manufactures usually break inserts down into 3 general types roughing, medium, and finishing. For hobby sized machines (< 14") you don't want to be running anything other than finishing inserts. Finishing insets are specifically designed for low feed rates, depth of cut, and toll pressure.

With regards to chip breaker geometry you want inserts with almost no land, and positive rake.

These are the insets I use for steel on my little 8x14.

Sandvik Coromant

www.sandvik.coromant.com

Here I'm pushing them pretty hard in 1144 stressproof, 0.1" doc (0.2" of the diameter).

 

[macardoso]

I'm going to throw a dissenting opinion out here. I have a 12x36 lathe and use carbide inserts 90% of the time (pretty much except for parting off). I find that it is beneficial to:

• Always have a properly shaped tool
• Have indexable toolholders always are positioned 90 degrees to the work (don't move the toolpost). This makes it very fast to change tooling.
• Have tool materials/geometries ideal for my workpiece material
• Quickly change cutting edge without having to re-zero the tool (except for very precision applications)
• Run workpiece as fast as possible without worry of burning up tooling
• Cut very hard materials when needed
• No need to grind tools or make a mess in my basement by running the grinder!

I very rarely chip my tooling and I buy inserts from Shars at very reasonable prices. I love the ground edge inserts (e.g. CCGX) for aluminum and can get extremely good finishes right out of the box.

EDIT: I do want to add (because I think many people misunderstand this) that carbide is most productive when run fast and hard, however it doesn't need to be run hard. The carbide will cut up to these super fast speeds, but still does fine if you cut at 50 rpm. It isn't like it magically falls apart at low speeds. Just cut hard enough to not rub the tool and deep enough to fully bury the nose radius.