- Joined
- Jan 22, 2012
- Messages
- 655
I think I have a real problem with parting on the lathe. When I got my fist lathe I bought a HHS parting blade and installed it into the holder that came with my QCTP. I started with a thinner parting blade, around .087" thick I think, and watched a bunch of video's before attempting to actually part off a piece on the lathe. It went ok for the first several attempts but then BAM! The tool jammed in the cut and busted about a third of the blade off and left a chunk buried in the part.
WOW, that got my attention. It was some mystery steel I had for practice so at least I didn't ruin anything important and I wasn't hurt so back to watching video's looking for the cause of my misfortune. I thought, maybe I should get a thicker blade, less likely to break maybe?
Some time goes by (where I avoided the parting tool like a bad dream) and then I needed to make some aluminum washers for a project so I had to break out the parting tool again. No avoiding this time.
You might see this coming based on the title. Apparently 2 hp can quite easily break a 1/8" parting blade.
Bummer.
More video's later I decided I needed one of the blade style tools that uses carbide inserts. I got a nice setup from Shars and about the third time I tried it BAM. Actually it broke without the drama that the solid HHS blades displayed, but ruined one of the two ends. This is starting to get expensive.
So I went back to avoiding the parting tool and used the bandsaw instead. I thought my problem might be flexing of the blade so when I saw a cool looking setup that looked very heavy duty I spent more $$ hoping for parting success.
I had to make some plastic washers so thought it was a good time to try out the new tool. After aligning the tool I made several washers without issue (keep in mind this is plastic now) and thought, maybe this is the answer.
Then I had to make a 1" OD by .100" thick washer with a 1/2" hole in steel. Shouldn't be too bad right? You might see where this is going about now. More carnage.
I think I will go back to the HHS blades as they are a lot cheaper. Ruining a very expensive tool is starting to get old about now.
WOW, that got my attention. It was some mystery steel I had for practice so at least I didn't ruin anything important and I wasn't hurt so back to watching video's looking for the cause of my misfortune. I thought, maybe I should get a thicker blade, less likely to break maybe?
Some time goes by (where I avoided the parting tool like a bad dream) and then I needed to make some aluminum washers for a project so I had to break out the parting tool again. No avoiding this time.
You might see this coming based on the title. Apparently 2 hp can quite easily break a 1/8" parting blade.
Bummer.
More video's later I decided I needed one of the blade style tools that uses carbide inserts. I got a nice setup from Shars and about the third time I tried it BAM. Actually it broke without the drama that the solid HHS blades displayed, but ruined one of the two ends. This is starting to get expensive.
So I went back to avoiding the parting tool and used the bandsaw instead. I thought my problem might be flexing of the blade so when I saw a cool looking setup that looked very heavy duty I spent more $$ hoping for parting success.
I had to make some plastic washers so thought it was a good time to try out the new tool. After aligning the tool I made several washers without issue (keep in mind this is plastic now) and thought, maybe this is the answer.
Then I had to make a 1" OD by .100" thick washer with a 1/2" hole in steel. Shouldn't be too bad right? You might see where this is going about now. More carnage.
I think I will go back to the HHS blades as they are a lot cheaper. Ruining a very expensive tool is starting to get old about now.