Feeling a little restricted.

[tinman123]

Getting a tooled finish is the one thing I didn't struggle with right from the off. That to me suggests the machine needs attention cod if I can do it in a day or two any one can
Ive been playing a lot with the gearing to get my feed speed as perfect as I can.
Alu is the best material for learning the art of finishing IMO. This is what I have mine down at now.

had you a reason for having the tool so far out from the tool post richard?
if not keep it as close as you can to it each time, the further out it is the more chatter you will have.

as for the carbide inserts there is different types for either roughing, medium and finishing cuts, its a mine field tho.
and as for your bars, i see you have some done but if your willing to cover postage costs ill mill the rest down for you if its any help to you.

 

[Richard.]

had you a reason for having the tool so far out from the tool post richard?
if not keep it as close as you can to it each time, the further out it is the more chatter you will have.

as for the carbide inserts there is different types for either roughing, medium and finishing cuts, its a mine field tho.
and as for your bars, i see you have some done but if your willing to cover postage costs ill mill the rest down for you if its any help to you.

I'd love it if you would mate.
I would like to pay for your time as well though please. I won't have you do the job for nout. There is 3 left to do. 3/4 of the length on the under side wants 2mm to come off. I'm in Ireland next week but I'll ask my Mrs to post them. Can I pay via PayPal.

 

[Richard.]

had you a reason for having the tool so far out from the tool post richard?
if not keep it as close as you can to it each time, the further out it is the more chatter you will have.

as for the carbide inserts there is different types for either roughing, medium and finishing cuts, its a mine field tho.
and as for your bars, i see you have some done but if your willing to cover postage costs ill mill the rest down for you if its any help to you.

Nope I had no reason for my post extended that far other than not knowing better. Cheers for the top tip

 

[tinman123]

I'd love it if you would mate.
I would like to pay for your time as well though please. I won't have you do the job for nout. There is 3 left to do. 3/4 of the length on the under side wants 2mm to come off. I'm in Ireland next week but I'll ask my Mrs to post them. Can I pay via PayPal.

it ill be cheaper for her to post them from the uk to me here in NI than send them from irl even tho i have a southern address.
stick them in a box or jiffy bag and post them to me with a drawing or some form of id of what you want done.
depending on what it is ill probably cut them with a solid carbide end mill or a face mill.
you will owe me nothing more than the cost of a cutter if i ding it (which id be doubtfull enough) and the postage here and back.
whang in the stamps to send it back if that can be done and it ill save you sending the post cost pay pall style.
pm me and ill give you my address.
all id ask you to do after that is to pay it forward.

 

[Richard.]

Very kind. I'll send them next week then when I'm back and do you a sketch. Cheers again.

 

[hareng]

Try one in a 4 jaw chuck, to prove if its the metal or your set up. They will be hard, but have been machined already to take the tip. but will i suspect have been heat treated in some way.

Totally agree found that to be the best way if have decent tool to turn it down with.
Bright side its Chinese tool set so not that hard, on quality tooling the only thing that did the job was the Kennametal NSR2020K3 turned down with another the same with 11.52mm high NR48T tips or the bullnose NB48K68 tips resilient to interrupted cuts and have turned down Perkins valves down with them and theyre hard.

 

[Richard.]

Chinese tool set

What's a chinese tool set?

 

[tinman123]

What's a chinese tool set?

something along the lines of this, and altho its sold from the uk you can be sure it wasnt made in sheffield.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5pc-Index...680998?hash=item5430e6bd66:g:Jf4AAOSwHnFVlnCK


know your sizes and do a search in metal working/milling/welding for lathe tooling, or broaden it widely to lathes and pass a while.
sandvik, kennmetal, iscar would be in the top names to name but a few and none of it is cheap new but if you keep an eye on e bay there are bargains to be had.

its what i do here, id go through maybe 10-15 pages of auction items in metal working/milling/welding and browse it, when i see something id like i watch it, if its worth the punt i do buy it and if it gets dear i leave it, they wont run out as long as your not in a wild panic.
tool steel tooling imo was grand way back then when there wasnt much else and it still has a place today but times have moved on and the carbide is the better option now, or in my book anyways.
the only tool steel i use here is on the boring head on the mill and only yesterday i picked up a sanvick 16mm carbide tipped boring bar for £19 to get shot of the tool steel cutter.
cheap bar compared to a new one.

 

[Richard.]

I have no clue where mine are from but I would say I'm confident they will of been decent tool bars.
Remember they were given to me by MattH. If anyone here has been in his little workshop they will know that Matt doesn't buy anything but top notch gear. Especially for machining.

 

[tinman123]

bonus there all the way then so.

 

[Richard.]

Tbh they could be the cheapest of cheap, my lathe is tiny and is not powerful enough to start hurting tool bars. So long as I use quality tips I doubt I'll ever notice the difference.
To me they are very hard. They have blunt 2 of my cutters just milling one bar.

 

[tinman123]

the hss mill wouldn't be up to much in anything over ms tbh, the solid carbide mill will cut about as hard a stuff as id like to cut, the drills will drill through the hardest of hard with about the same speed as a hss would drill ms.
im a bit of a virgin on solid carbide but in the 18mths ive been using them ive been astonished as to how good they are, indeed i just got 16x 5-10mm ones off the bay for £40, youd pay that for one or two of them.

 

[addjunkie]

I know its messy but miling cutters tend to stay sharp alot longer if you use coolant

 

[Richard.]

the hss mill wouldn't be up to much in anything over ms tbh, the solid carbide mill will cut about as hard a stuff as id like to cut, the drills will drill through the hardest of hard with about the same speed as a hss would drill ms.
im a bit of a virgin on solid carbide but in the 18mths ive been using them ive been astonished as to how good they are, indeed i just got 16x 5-10mm ones off the bay for £40, youd pay that for one or two of them.

I'll be buying some carbide tipped cutters next I think. Leave my hss ones for softer stuff.

 

[Richard.]

What's the best way to re sharpen them.

 

[tinman123]

the hss ones?, a bench grinder with a good table and a sharpening jig made to suit your angle if youd like to go all fancy, or a fish gauge and patience without the guide.

 

[Richard.]

the hss ones?, a bench grinder with a good table and a sharpening jig made to suit your angle if youd like to go all fancy, or a fish gauge and patience without the guide.

Great cheers mate.

 

[Richard.]

Ok. A little update.
@tinman123 I want to say a huge thank you for the thoughtful offer but....
I have decided I'm going to mill my bars myself. The reason is simple. I won't be beaten. I won't learn how to do difficult jobs on my lathe if I give them out to people with better knowledge and better equipment.
I might blunt a few tools along the way but so what. How many tungstens do you grind to the nub when learning to tig weld.
Any how. I treated my self to a couple carbide cutters and they are the nuts. It's got me through the other two bars and still razor sharp. I'll keep me hss ones for the softer stuff and my friend is gonna dress up the two I've blunt.
I love the finish these cutters give

 

[Richard.]

That's an attitude sorely lacking in many these days, keep it up young man and you'll go far

Cheers mate.

 

[tinman123]

well im delighted you tried the solid carbide and done it yourself, you were more than welcome as you know for me to run them off for you but i admire your dedication.


thats a nice setup on the lathe, makes it that bit more universal.
be cautious with an overhang like what you have there tho, whats not in the vice is under more pressure and not much to support it which on lighter material will cause deflection but the way the cross slide can only push front to back is a bonus if your milling like the way you did it, if you were plunge cutting with a mill or using a ball nose then you would want to be aware of the fact that you would be better off in that case working from the supported area out and the further out you go from the vice jaws the lighter the cuts.
it looks from the pic you mounted the tool in the middle of the jaws, you would be better mounting it in the middle of the cut, dont worry about the rest of it, its just dead weight.

if you keep an eye on the bay you could pick up a face mill, a smallish one at about 40mm, it ill be carbide tipped and will leave an excellent finish as long as your trammed up.(everything squared up with a dial gauge to less than 1 thou)
i have a 40mm, 60mm and 125mm here, great for taking a wide cut and could be mounted on a straight arbor.

check out http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/quick-index.aspx site, they carry a lot of stuff and its fairly reasonably priced and the quality is plenty good for the likes of you and me, i have some of their stuff here and altho its not starret its finished nearly as well and i couldnt fault it, so far anyways.