Advice on lathe for home shop

So I went back to my local dealer to see what new machines he might have. It turns out he’s got a big chunk of the building next door full of other stuff. In it there is another M300 Harrison, 13x40. And a couple M300 parts machines. I hunted around for the accessories on the other M300’s and pending him moving the machine over to the store where it can get powered and inspected we may have a deal. It’s going to be the M300, 3jaw, 4jaw , steady rest, drill Chuck in the tail stock, quick change tool post and a couple holders for 2 K.
I like the size of this machine, it’s going to sit well in my space, I think this dealer is an honest guy and I like knowing he’s got parts machines that can be picked over if needed. UK eBay has plenty of parts for these machines too. Hopefully the inspection of this next one goes OK, it looks as nice as the 25” one I looked at, ways seem ok, backlash is reasonable. Hopefully there’s no surprises once she’s under power!
 
So while I wait to go check on the Harrison early this week I’m starting to think about tools. The dealer is going to include a qctp and a holder as part of the sale. I’m wondering about additional holders and the actual cutting tools. I’ve predominately used HSS cutters in the past with a few brazed carbide cutters thrown in. i have a small 6” bench grinder that I use mostly for sharpening tungsten, if I were to choose the standard HSS tooling I’d most likely need a bigger grinder and then I’d have to up my tool sharpening game as that’s something I’ve never been very good at. I have zero experience with indexable tools. ive spent a few hours scouring the internet trying to educate myself on the indexable cutters and I think I’m more confused than I was. How big a problem is the chipping of cutters and it seems that surface finish is not so great with the carbide. Apparently carbide requires higher speeds, how much higher? The Harrison that I may be purchasing goes to 2500 rpm; I’m assuming that this is fast enough even for smaller diameter stock but I’ve been wrong before.... and I’ve found that there are HSS inserts too, these seem like a decent compromise Am I missing anything with these? And in regards to the insert holders some are quite inexpensive and some are rather pricey, what is reasonable to start with? Do I want one of the sets with left hand, neutral , right hand and a boring bar or is it better to buy individual tools? There are a gazillion different inserts out there, I’d like to keep the number of inserts to a minimum but im also sure there are reasons to have all the different inserts , what’s a good combination of different inserts if such a thing exists? Obviously the first question is “ what are you going to be doing?”. I don’t have a specific answer for that but let’s just say I’m looking for a general purpose set of tools that wil cover most of the basic turning, facing, threading boring etc.
 
^^^ When you figure that out, let me know. :grin: ^^^

2500 is normally plenty fast. My PM1022 I had spun at 2k and so does the new one I have coming.
 
When you say you have a grinder for sharpening tungsten, are you talking about TIG electrodes? If so you won't want to share sharpening jobs with that, it will contaminate the tungsten.

I have a 1hp 8" grinder, that has done a decent job for grinding HSS tooling. There seems to be a preference for using a 2" belt grinder though.

There is a monster HSS tooling thread here. It might take you a few days to get through it, but I have found it very helpful.

Models for grinding HSS lathe tools

There is another much shorter thread on boring that you may find helpful as well.

A Boring Primer


As far as inserts go I have a 5 piece basic set that uses triangular inserts. It came with my 11" lathe so I wasn't involved in choosing it, but it works well. I mostly use the LH, RH and center tools. I have a (cheap) set of brazed carbide boring bars, that I chose for the price, and an insert flycutter for my mill. I have only dabbled in inserts, mainly for finding replacement inserts and wow is that a confusing system. Not just one either there are two different sets of identification codes out there. One thing I have learned is different shapes give you more or less replacement cutting edges for wear / screw ups. My triangular inserts basically give me three edges before the insert is done. Some of the square inserts give 4, but others only two (more of a diamond shape than a true square). Not sure on this last but I think that I saw that some can also be flipped over doubling the number of fresh cutting edges.

I also use HSS, as even an 11" lathe is on the small side to get the full benefit from carbide. I use the carbide on tougher materials that will dull HSS quickly.

I'm not sure if there is a big thread of inserts, but you may want to start a separate thread on selecting insert tooling. You will get more replies from people who know their carbide tools that may not see this buried in a thread about buying a lathe.
 
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I am glad you did that Aaron. I knew those threads were in here but I was too lazy to look for them. LOL.
 
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