Indexable lathe tooling recommendations?

Finster

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Seems like I'm buying a lot of tooling lately. I guess I have a problem? :grin: I want to get a good set of lathe tooling. Shars and anything else made in China is OUT on this one. I want a good set. I have a China set that came with my old Sheldon and it's JUNK. I don't want to end up with more junk. I wanted to maybe find a Kennametal set but I can't go any higher than a .5" shank. Can anyone recommend a good brand name made somewhere in the Western culture that carries .5" shanks?
 
Two makers that come to mind are Seco and Iscar. Both make outstanding tooling. Toolmex isn't bad, either. Sandvik, Valenite, Mitsubishi are also very good but generally more expensive. I'm sure there are others but these are all holders I've used or owned so I have personal knowledge of them. I prefer Seco and Iscar, myself.
 
That depends on what style inserts you want to use. For 1/2" shank it's much more limted on what's available compared to larger sizes for the quality stuff. For example you will find very little for negative inserts, probably only TNMG.

It gets much better with 5/8" & 3/4" shanks. You can always mill down shanks to fit as well.

When I used 1/2" shanks most of mine were made by Dorian. I'm using 5/8" shanks now & I'm still using mostly Dorian. With the quality tooling you won't find sets though like you see with the China offerings.

What style inserts are you interested in?
 
That depends on what style inserts you want to use. For 1/2" shank it's much more limted on what's available compared to larger sizes for the quality stuff. For example you will find very little for negative inserts, probably only TNMG.

It gets much better with 5/8" & 3/4" shanks. You can always mill down shanks to fit as well.

When I used 1/2" shanks most of mine were made by Dorian. I'm using 5/8" shanks now & I'm still using mostly Dorian. With the quality tooling you won't find sets though like you see with the China offerings.

What style inserts are you interested in?

Yea, I thought of milling them down. That's just hard for me to do after spending a good bit of money on quality tooling. It just seems wrong. :cautious: I'm not sure on the inserts. I'm not an insert authority by any means. I was thinking diamond or triangle just because it seems the most versatile and you get more cutting edges so it's a bit economical also.
 
Yea, I thought of milling them down. That's just hard for me to do after spending a good bit of money on quality tooling. It just seems wrong. :cautious: I'm not sure on the inserts. I'm not an insert authority by any means. I was thinking diamond or triangle just because it seems the most versatile and you get more cutting edges so it's a bit economical also.

I hear ya, although many people do it, I'm not a fan of milling down tool shanks. But I have on some cheaper ones & used ones. The ones I bought new were purchased in the size I needed.

Diamond & triangle are most common & they perform well.

For diamond there is 85°(C), 55°(D), & 35°(V). I personally like 85° & 55°. I don't have a need for 35°, not yet anyway.

For C diamond CCMT/CCGT inserts are very common. The holders are SCLCR for RH & SCLCL for LH. You can easily find these in 1/2" shanks as well as boring bars.

For D diamond DCMT/DCGT the holders are SDUCR/L, also available in 1/2" shanks & boring bars.

For triangle inserts there are many more holders than the ones above for these holders that orient the position of the insert for different operations. Search TCMT holder to see all the different ones.

Also pay attention to the insert size for 1/2" shanks. They come in 21.5_ (1/4" IC) & 32.5_ (3/8" IC) sizes. I prefer the 3/8" inscribed circle size but one reason to go with the smaller 1/4" IC insert is if you use boring bars that take the same size, you can use the same inserts for your turning tools & boring bars.

BTW the inserts I mentioned above are all positive inserts. Not sure what size lathe you have but with 1/2" shanks you get much better reults using positives than negatives.

Also check out latheinserts.com. Curtis is very knowledgeable & used to work for Kennametal. He doesn't list the higher end brands on his site but his stuff is usually always of good quality. Last I remember most of the tool holders he was supplying are Toolmex (TMX).
 
Seems like I'm buying a lot of tooling lately. I guess I have a problem? :grin: I want to get a good set of lathe tooling. Shars and anything else made in China is OUT on this one. I want a good set. I have a China set that came with my old Sheldon and it's JUNK. I don't want to end up with more junk. I wanted to maybe find a Kennametal set but I can't go any higher than a .5" shank. Can anyone recommend a good brand name made somewhere in the Western culture that carries .5" shanks?[/QUOTE!

Kennemetal might as well change there name to KennaKrap. I sent back two SCLCR toolholders , inserts would not fit pocket, beauty machining just done incorrectly. BTW they make stuff all over in second and third world countries now. My holders were made in Bulgaria. Might as well have gotten them from China on ebay for 20 cents on the dollar.
 
A picture of what you have would be a big help. Also what tool post do you have.
 
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Just a 10" Sheldon circa late 1940's I believe, I have a Chinese wedge quick change tool post. It works well as far as rigidity. I could go with a .375 shank. It works but I want the rigidity of the larger shank .5 is as big as I can go without milling. .5" also just makes my center height with a few thou for tweaking.
 
I'm looking at this set:
http://www.ajaxtoolsupply.com/bostar1shint.html
I found them really cheap here. Most places want over $200 for these. They are supposed to be USA made but I know nothing of the name. I also believe the picture is wrong. This set in .5" should be model number BICT-8 Does anyone have experience with these?


There is also a "Precision Matthews" set that looks nice. I think this is also USA made, but not sure. This looks super nice. To nice for the price. Anyone know anything about this tooling?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMPLETE-CARBIDE-CUTTING-TURNING-TOOL-SET-METAL-LATHE-SIZED-FOR-AXA-CCGT-CCMT/232277702664?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=2&asc=40130&meid=e1430fce6a8c4b64a88e2a352e1dd45b&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=332185995464
 
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Several of us have the same Precision Mathews set in BXA size. I think it is made in China. Nevertheless, the quality seems acceptable and for the price they are a good value. There is a recent thread on this specific set.
 
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