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- Dec 24, 2020
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My K&T 2H came with a couple boxes of cutters and one pile turned out to be metric, which surprised me. They are mostly 200 x 20 mm and have a 40mm arbor hole. The machine didn't come with a 40mm arbor, but it did come with a couple of new, fairly large end mill holders including one for 1.5" end mills. Since I've got a lathe I was thinking of making an arbor to take advantage of the metric cutters. I then did a little research and found a video of Keith Rucker doing pretty much the same thing to use 1-1/16" cutters he had, so I figured my idea isn't crazy.
The plan would be to turn one end down to 1.5" for the end mill holder, leave a section larger than 40mm as a shoulder, turn a short section to 40mm/1.57ish and then turn the remainder down to 1-1/4 to use the spacers and running bushing from my 1-1/4" arbor, and thread the end for the nut from the same 1-1/4 arbor. I think it's a pretty reasonable project I can pull off without too much trouble, but I'm not sure on steel choices.
I'm already making a special trip to the place I get this sort of stock from or I would probably just make it from some CRS I have on hand. A couple of options that I've bought there before are A311/1144/Stressproof, 12L14, 8620 and O1 in the proper size (along with common CRS among many other options) and likely drops which aren't too expensive even at current prices. I'm leaning towards the A311 since it's supposed to be resist deformation when machined and this will have varied thicknesses as well as at least a short keyway, but maybe I'm overthinking things?
Or would I simply be better off selling the metric cutters? They appear new but some have spots of surface rust, dirt and grim that should come off easily.
The plan would be to turn one end down to 1.5" for the end mill holder, leave a section larger than 40mm as a shoulder, turn a short section to 40mm/1.57ish and then turn the remainder down to 1-1/4 to use the spacers and running bushing from my 1-1/4" arbor, and thread the end for the nut from the same 1-1/4 arbor. I think it's a pretty reasonable project I can pull off without too much trouble, but I'm not sure on steel choices.
I'm already making a special trip to the place I get this sort of stock from or I would probably just make it from some CRS I have on hand. A couple of options that I've bought there before are A311/1144/Stressproof, 12L14, 8620 and O1 in the proper size (along with common CRS among many other options) and likely drops which aren't too expensive even at current prices. I'm leaning towards the A311 since it's supposed to be resist deformation when machined and this will have varied thicknesses as well as at least a short keyway, but maybe I'm overthinking things?
Or would I simply be better off selling the metric cutters? They appear new but some have spots of surface rust, dirt and grim that should come off easily.