Turning Cast Iron with HHS

I always had to pickle cast iron from the museum's foundry in muriatic acid. The casting were small,si I put them in a jar out doors with the acid and let it soak for a few hours at least. Surprising how much sandy crud would be in the bottom of the jar.

I didn't know Shars sold cast iron.

I suggest very low RPM's with HSS. Trying to take a cut across a face plate is very difficult. The HSS gets dull,and the cut is messed up. I always use carbide for that.

Chinese HSS,if ANYTHING always seems harder than USA stuff. Chinese HSS end mills,too(if they are truly sharp,you are lucky,though.) Some customers of Wholesale Tool said they could mill stuff with the Chinese cutters that they could not cut with USA end mills,believe it or not. Chinese HSS is also more brittle than USA HSS. Trouble is,as always,quality control of Chinese stuff. I haven't had bad HSS yet,but sometimes I get sharp end mills,and sometimes they are just not fully sharp.
 
Forgot about HF
Maybe I'll take a look at what they have in stock in the carbide dept

P Lev:
My mill vice is on the way:))
 
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I usually get the RH type. They used to carry them in LH but haven't seen them in a while. For 50c a piece, you can't go wrong...
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outsider347 said:
Forgot about HF
Maybe I'll take a look at what they have in stock in the carbide dept

P Lev:
My Glacern mill vice is on the way:))
Click to expand...
 
Probably not a good buy. C2 carbide is what is generally used for woodworking tools, C6 is best for C.I. I've used C2 from old sawmill debarker tips, silver soldered on new shanks, for roughing interruped cuts on steel. The stuff is soft enough to take a beating w/o breaking up, but requires frequent resharpening. The abrasiveness of C.I. eats C2 pretty quick. For HSS, I find T-15 works best.
 
I think you may have that backwards. C2 is for cast iron,C6 is for steel. C2 is a tougher grade of carbide that won't break as easily when cutting cast iron.The way cast iron cuts,it needs the tougher grade.

This is easily Googled before someone goes and buys the wrong grade of carbide.
 
+1 on this. C2 is "tough" and more flexible -better suited when you have interrupted cuts such as when you're facing a backplate that has some holes drilled. C6 is hard but chips and cracks easily. The rough grainy structure of CI chips the cutting edge.

BTW: HF sells those bits in a couple different grades but all are not always available. -And might I suggest that you open the package and check each one. I bought a box one time and someone had switched different grades and even a couple RH bits and I was expecting to purchase a quantity of LH bits. -It bugs me when people do stuff like that.


Ray



george wilson said:
I think you may have that backwards. C2 is for cast iron,C6 is for steel. C2 is a tougher grade of carbide that won't break as easily when cutting cast iron.The way cast iron cuts,it needs the tougher grade.

This is easily Googled before someone goes and buys the wrong grade of carbide.
Click to expand...
 
Mostly in response to George Wilson: thinking maybe I was wrong, I did some looking around on internet, found C2 carbide rated everywhere from hard to soft, and for every cutting use there is. Also found an article stating that the "C" ratings have become largely outdated because of the changes in the mtl. over time. Then too, I don't fully believe everything I read on the internet. Maybe that's my problem, outdated. I largely based what I said on things I learned near 40 years ago. If I messed a bunch of peoples thinking up, I apologize.
Larry Larson
 
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