First facing cut - carbide insert - 5/8" brass round

[ssdesigner]

Here is a closeup of the facing tool

 

[benmychree]

Yes, that is what I thought I was looking at, it is entirely wrong for the job at hand as I explained in my prior post. It appears that it might be used for turning right to left, if rotated 90 deg. in a clockwise direction and possibly used to faceif the tool post was rotated to allow the point only to do the cutting, point is the radius on the cutting edge needs to be vertical, not horizontal.

 

[Inferno]

What you have is a HSS cutting blank. It's not meant to be used without grinding. It should be sharp enough to cut YOU if you want it to cut metal.
You are going to need to learn how to grind a cut if you are going to own a lathe. If you don't have a grinder, get one with a coarse wheel and a fine one.
Also, when you grind a bit you want to never get it too hot. Grind and dip works well for me.
Use the coarse side of the grinder to rough out a shape and the fine side for a finish pass.

A cheap grinder with a good final pass wheel is the one from Harbor Freight.

Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at Discount Prices Since 1977

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

The wire wheel side won't last long but the grinder side is durable enough for fine grinding bits.

I was taught the basics of bit grinding in high school. I really enjoyed grinding them back then because I could experiment with the cuts. I made some pretty oddball bits. One I just called the meat cutter. It would do a 0.200" deep pass and make a chip 0.020 wide in a perfect spiral in mild steel. The other students wanted me to grind their bits for actual work. Our practice bits were just regular steel and not used for actual cutting.

Here's a good illustration for starting. You can grind these pretty quick. If you do a rounded face bit (second down) you can get a near mirror finish on the cut.
If I do my brass facing in the next few days I might make a video as a beginner guide.
PS, the rake is an important feature that shouldn't be overlooked.

 

[benmychree]

What you have is a HSS cutting blank. It's not meant to be used without grinding. It should be sharp enough to cut YOU if you want it to cut metal.
You are going to need to learn how to grind a cut if you are going to own a lathe. If you don't have a grinder, get one with a coarse wheel and a fine one.
Also, when you grind a bit you want to never get it too hot. Grind and dip works well for me.
Use the coarse side of the grinder to rough out a shape and the fine side for a finish pass.

A cheap grinder with a good final pass wheel is the one from Harbor Freight.

Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at Discount Prices Since 1977

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

The wire wheel side won't last long but the grinder side is durable enough for fine grinding bits.

In my opinion a 3" grinder would be nearly useless for tool bit grinding, If I were looking for a grinder for tool bits, it would need to be with at least 6" wheels and definitely not from HF, due to excessive vibration from their grinders. even with new USA wheels, they still shake.

 

[ssdesigner]

These 2 bits are not blanks, they have been ground. I had a very well known member here make these for me so that I can get my feet wet before jumping in the whole "shaping of tools" pool. For me, baby steps is more manageable. I know that I'll need to make HSS tools, but these are literally my very first cuts, ever. So, one thing at a time.

 

[Inferno]

In my opinion a 3" grinder would be nearly useless for tool bit grinding, If I were looking for a grinder for tool bits, it would need to be with at least 6" wheels and definitely not from HF, due to excessive vibration from their grinders. even with new USA wheels, they still shake.

The one I showed is ONLY for a fine finish grind (or resharpening). I never had faith in one of those either until I tried one. It's balanced enough to spin the 3" wheel at 10,000 RPM which is close to where I used it for sharpening bits.

 

[benmychree]

The one I showed is ONLY for a fine finish grind (or resharpening). I never had faith in one of those either until I tried one. It's balanced enough to spin the 3" wheel at 10,000 RPM which is close to where I used it for sharpening bits.

The one that I am referring to was a 10", it was given to me, it shook so much that I bought the USA wheels, made new flanges and washers, and it still shook so bad that it is useless for most any grinding, add to that, the guards are tinny and the toolrests are so thin, and flexible that they are unusable, it sits under the bench, I will likely take the wheels off and toss the rest.

 

[Inferno]

These 2 bits are not blanks, they have been ground. I had a very well known member here make these for me so that I can get my feet wet before jumping in the whole "shaping of tools" pool. For me, baby steps is more manageable. I know that I'll need to make HSS tools, but these are literally my very first cuts, ever. So, one thing at a time.

Odd. That rounded edge made me think they were identical to the blanks I bought. Only my blanks had a sharper edge.

 

[Inferno]

The one that I am referring to was a 10", it was given to me, it shook so much that I bought the USA wheels, made new flanges and washers, and it still shook so bad that it is useless for most any grinding, add to that, the guards are tinny and the toolrests are so thin, and flexible that they are unusable, it sits under the bench, I will likely take the wheels off and toss the rest.

The wheels are probably why it shakes. A different set of wheels might go a long way but the ones on it are likely junk.

Every year there's an auto swap meet in Portland in April. Every year there's a booth or 4 with all kinds of grinding consumables. Prices are usually pretty reasonable and you can pick up wheels. I wouldn't trust anything from a traveling booth to offer up a perfect surface grinder wheel but the rest of their stuff seems just fine. Their surface grinder wheels might be OK too but that's just where I'd draw a line. Anyhow, the funny thing is my friend said he won't buy any "China crap" (which really means anything Asian) from them. One day I was in his shop and started pointing out all the stuff he had that was made in an Asian country. He started making excuses but he got the point. There's Chin crap and there's China good stuff.

 

[Huub Buis]

@ssdesigner, The tool in (one of your previous) your picture is is a left hand tool placed wrong (90° rotated) in the tool holder.
The picture below shows a right hand tool, with a small nose radius (vertical) in its cutting position. It can be used for facing and turning.