What lathe tools do you recommend

[MrWhoopee]

I have an SB Heavy 10L, about the same size as your lathe. I've had very good luck with the cheap economical Chinese holders and inserts from eBay and Aliexpress.
A set like this will get you started, just order a pack of each of the inserts.

Shank Lathe Boring Bar Turning Tool Holder Set With Carbide Inserts 5pcs 8mm | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Shank Lathe Boring Bar Turning Tool Holder Set With Carbide Inserts 5pcs 8mm at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

For internal threading

37.28US $ |New 3 Set SNR0008K11+SNR0010K11+SNR0012M11 Lathe Boring Bar Stainless Steel 3Pcs wrench+ 10x 11IR A60 Insert Wrench|Turning Tool| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[ThinWoodsman]

I have a 14" Logan, so this may advice may not apply to a 10" lathe. I use carbide insert tools almost exclusively, with a trigon (WNMG) for my main workhorse and a threading tool (G60?) for external threads. Internal threads and boring are still handled on a case-by-case basis.

Carbide inserts work well, with the same caveats as the brazed carbide tools given above: you should hone them with a few swipes of a diamond sharpener before use. This gives them a bit more bite, reducing somewhat the rigidity required for the initial cut. Also a good idea before a shallow finishing pass, as it reduces the tearing that carbide tends to do on DOC less than 0.010.

In regards to HSS tools, don't waste a lot of time learning to grind your own at the outset, or you'll likely give up on machining and the lathe will gather dust. Go on ebay or CL and purchase a lot of lathe tools, usually part of an estate sale or liquidation. There are a few posted every day: keep an eye out for the required shank size, make sure it's HSS and not brazed carbide, try to get a variety of tool shapes. Use a dollar or two per tool as your price point, and you should to be able to pick up a lot of 40 or 50 that are ready to use or just need a quick touch-up.

 

[Tolerent]

Sorry if this is off topic, But, can anyone advise the viability of 10mm tools in an 3/8 holder? Will they be fine or raise off work center and is there something to overcome that?

While at it, what viability of replacing the holder on a Grizzly G4000 which comes with a 3/8 holder to swap that out for a 1/2 or larger holder? Would that be viable if having the base of the holder milled a bit shorter or is there an adjustment for height, or is it just foolish?

 

[gerritv]

I have a King KC1022, in essence the same lathe. My opinions from 3 years of using it:
1. 1/2 tooling is a waste of money and time. The motor isn't powerful enough to take advantage. And you create tool height challenges as you often can't get the tool on centre.
2. The 12mm tool holders from Aliexpress et al are perfectly fine for our hobby needs. MrWhoopee has shown a typical example above.
3. Carbide generally doesn't like thin cuts, great for hogging though. Also you need 2-3 times the surface speed in most cases compared to HSS
4. I very often grind cutters from 6 and 8mm round HSS. These go into 1/2 square holders that then go in the AXA tool post. They let me quickly grind up various shapes. Luis Ally on Youtube has a series of videos on making holders and demonstrates just how great HSS is even on a Sherline. Part way through this video you can see a demonstration of how useful and powerful these small cutters are:

Grinding 1/4" HSS tools is not a big deal, esp. when you have a simple grinding rest to help steady the tool at correct angles. Harold Hall provides some examples of simple rests, there are other designs out in the wild as well: http://www.homews.co.uk/page146.html

Attached a photo showing some of my 6mm tools. They are held in a 1/2 square block. Top of cutter is always .001 or so above centre of axis, which menas I can swap them in-out of an AXA holder without fiddling with height each time. A QCTP system on a QCTP I use these on all kinds of metals, Al, brass, steel, drill rod, stainless.

Lastly a reminder to all, not everyone lives in the US. Vendors such as McMaster-Carr, PM, Grizzly et al are a) overpriced (like extortionist levels sometimes) on shipping if any to Canada, b) exchange rate is painful, c) most of the itmes are from China etc anyway so may as well go to the source without shipping surcharges.