Lathe Tool Holders

redvan22

redvan22

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Hi,
Hope everyone had a good holiday season.

I've been contemplating getting a set of tool holders for my mini lathe as I'm getting tired of poor finishes and regrinding HSS. So, I thought going to tool holders with indexable pre-formed tips would be a good idea to get better finishes and eliminate most of the regrinding. However, I know there will always be a need for HSS. This will be a learning experience as I have no experience with preformed inserts either.

My search began at Amazon and the plethora of choices prompted me to ask for advice. One set I saw looked good (this one) but the price scared me - very cheap for such a nice looking set. Is cheap good in this case as it's not the tool holder that is critical, just the tip. IDK.

Any advice or suggested sets will be appreciated. Just interested in the basics, left, right, boring, facing, etc.

Michael
 
(in my best Aussie accent) That's not cheap. This is CHEAP!
www.ebay.com

7Pcs Lathe Turning Tool Holder Lathe Boring Bar Indexable Carbide Inserts | eBay

Lathe Accessories. Twist Drill Bit. Diamond Drill Bit. Suitable: Applicable machine tool is lathe; Each tool holder has a black oxidized smooth surface, and the tool hardness (HRC up and down 48 degrees) and has nice accuracy.
www.ebay.com

I have purchased a LOT of this type of tooling, both off eBay and Aliexpress. It has all been good stuff, no crap. Well made and properly hardened. I can attest to the latter since I've done quite a bit of machining on them.

I believe that someone on this forum did get one item that had a problem, but that's the only complaint I've heard.
 
redvan22 said:
Hi,
Hope everyone had a good holiday season.

I've been contemplating getting a set of tool holders for my mini lathe as I'm getting tired of poor finishes and regrinding HSS. So, I thought going to tool holders with indexable pre-formed tips would be a good idea to get better finishes and eliminate most of the regrinding. However, I know there will always be a need for HSS. This will be a learning experience as I have no experience with preformed inserts either.

My search began at Amazon and the plethora of choices prompted me to ask for advice. One set I saw looked good (this one) but the price scared me - very cheap for such a nice looking set. Is cheap good in this case as it's not the tool holder that is critical, just the tip. IDK.

Any advice or suggested sets will be appreciated. Just interested in the basics, left, right, boring, facing, etc.

Michael
Click to expand...
I have had very good results with Accusize tooling, they are a Canadian company with good stuff at, generally speaking, reasonable pricing.
 
" I'm getting tired of poor finishes and regrinding HSS. So, I thought going to tool holders with indexable pre-formed tips would be a good idea "

"Insert tooling will not solve your problem."

I think what Jim F (above) means that there are other factors influencing your work, perhaps your RPM speed is too high, or depth of cut too deep.

Carbide inserted tools are great, if they will cut the way you want, but perhaps you want a chip breaker, or some other variable, if you can sharpen your cutting tools properly you won't need 'standardized' tooling.

Knowing how to sharpen cutting tools (we all do it, it can't be hard) is not hard to learn, and once you've mastered them you can slightly change them to be just the way you want.

I notice that often the tools illustrated don't have the right inserts in them, The one MrWhoopie mentioned, the first tool on the left, was loaded with a threading insert with the thread being so that it would cut into the face of the work. I'd hate to think that a new machinist, buying this would try to use it for anything.

Learn to sharpen HS tools, learn to walk before you run.....
 
RickKr said:
I think you should do yourself a favor by getting David P. Best's book on indexable tooling for metal lathes. For a minilathe, I think a great source of toolholders and inserts is Little Machine Shop.
Click to expand...
The book costs more than the tooling he’s looking at and neither will solve his issues.

OP learn how to properly grind an HSS tool it first, then how to set up your machine properly before going forward.

Without these two basics in place you’ll just be throwing money at the problem endlessly looking for that “Right” tool.
 
T Bredehoft said:
I notice that often the tools illustrated don't have the right inserts in them, The one MrWhoopie mentioned, the first tool on the left, was loaded with a threading insert with the thread being so that it would cut into the face of the work. I'd hate to think that a new machinist, buying this would try to use it for anything.

Learn to sharpen HS tools, learn to walk before you run.....
Click to expand...


That is the insert for the internal boring bar.

You would install it in the boring bar in that orientation for internal threading and many times these come loose in the package so the end user needs to set it up properly.

Just looked again, they have them switched, but it is just a photo op.

Not the first time.


iu
 
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Well, even though I passed metal shop with straight A's when I was in school many years ago, I took the repeated advise here and focused on relearning how to grind HSS and achieved some pretty good results.
Insert tooling is no longer on my mind (especially after looking into it and seeing the vast variety of sizes, shapes, acronyms describing the inserts and a plethora of other information, including cost - yikes) so, thank you everyone.
 
Once you’ve started grinding your own you’ll be surprised at how quickly you start tweaking them to do exactly what you want. The feedback, good or bad, is essentially instant.
 
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