Annular cutter use in lathe

[Armourer]

I need to drill some 1.5" holes through some 2X2 steel bar stock and was wondering if anyone has used any annular cutters in their lathe and how it worked out for them? I see you need to buy an adapter of course to go from the tailstock to a weldon shank, to buy everything to do it is pretty expensive and wanted to see if its worth a try before investing the money.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

I picked up an accusize 3/4 weldon to MT2 shank annular cutter arbor, about seventy bucks.

The annular cutter frequently stalled the motor in the 7x16 Micromark (Sieg) bench lathe I originally bought it for.

I now have a 14x40 Logan, with the arbor in an MT2-MT3 sleeve, and it works great. Not really much to it - you have to dig in a bit with the tailstock for the cutter to bite, and after that it's smooth sailing.

 

[mksj]

They work well with a MT3 holder providing your lathe has enough rigidity, did not have any issues with stalling on a 2 and 3 Hp lathes. With that size cutter probably want to be around 200 RPM with some cutting fluid. The key to cutting with an annular cutter is a constant feed pressure, do not peck at the work, you may occasionally need to break the swarf and clear it. When making spiders for lathes, I often will use a 1 3/8" annular cutter from either side to cut ~2" deep core in solid stock. A real time saver over step drilling and boring.

 

[Papa Charlie]

I would drill a hole with a large enough bit that would allow a boring bar in. Then you can enlarge the hole to your exact requirement.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

did not have any issues with stalling on a 2 and 3 Hp lathes.

Yeah, the Logan has a 2 HP motor. As far as I can tell, the 7x16 has maybe 2 seahorsepower (SHP).

 

[Armourer]

Thanks for the replies! My lathe is 2 H.P. with a MT3 tailstock so I may give it a go and see what happens.

I would drill a hole with a large enough bit that would allow a boring bar in. Then you can enlarge the hole to your exact requirement.

I have been drilling up to 1.250" and boring to size but it is very time consuming and thought a annular cutter would speed up the process. Seems there is never enough time to get all the projects done!

 

[Weldingrod1]

They rock! Fastest way to a big hole ever!
Great trick: swap the holder locking screw to a long SHCS and rest it on a boring bar. Keeps the torque out of your tailstock bits.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[westerner]

The key to cutting with an annular cutter is a constant feed pressure,

Great trick: swap the holder locking screw to a long SHCS and rest it on a boring bar. Keeps the torque out of your tailstock bits.

Great tips, Gentlemen. Filed away for future use. Thank You!