What type of chips should you produce?

[Tenn]

Unless you want LONG,hot,sharp swarf coming off your lathe,better grind a chip breaker. In the late 19th.C.,lathe designers did not see how lathes could be made to run much faster because of the huge amount of long rolls of chips that would be generated. Then,someone invented the chip breaker and changed all that. With HSS and later carbide,lathes could be made to cut many times faster,and new lathes with better bearings had to be invented to run fast enough for the new cutting tools.

Wondering how the swarf comes off a tangential tool bit ?? They don't have a chip breaker. -^^^ does that make them cut only the long stringy swarf ? Anybody know ?

~Chris

 

[Tenn]

-^^^ DaveH are you talking tangential tool or regular toolbit ? Not difficult to cut a chipbreaker in a regular HSS toolbit. More difficult to describe it on paper Not so sure I know how to do that or should I say I'm sure I don't know how ?

;0
~Chris

 

[Tenn]

Dave
I have found a small groove cut 1/16" or so 1-2 cm behind the cutting edge will usually curl the chips enough so they break. I've seen toolbits with great gouges cut in them but that isn't necessary to get the chips to break maybe just a little experimenting starting with a groove 1-2 cm behind the cutting face and 1 cm deep to start with. A chip breaking groove will work in carbide or HSS but generally is less used in carbide I think ?

~Chris

 

[Tony Wells]

Chris, small error there. I appreciate the metric system use, but 1-2 cm is roughly 3/8-3/4". I'm sure you were thinking 1-2 mm. I used to grind that sort of groove in brazed carbide using a diamond wheel, plus I changed the rake angle on the land that is between the groove and the edge. More positive, in general.

This was before I started using ready made inserts.

 

[Tenn]

Chris, small error there. I appreciate the metric system use, but 1-2 cm is roughly 3/8-3/4". I'm sure you were thinking 1-2 mm. I used to grind that sort of groove in brazed carbide using a diamond wheel, plus I changed the rake angle on the land that is between the groove and the edge. More positive, in general.

This was before I started using ready made inserts.

Thanks Tony yes I meant mm. I'm built in USA and NOT good at metrics &^%$ as usual @#@#

~Chris

 

[Plumber]

As long as my finished piece comes out right I tend not to worry about the chips, but I have learned to watch those long strands they can and will bite the heck out of at the very least. Personally I like the angel hair wisps that come off with a final pass of 1 to 2 thousandths. Most of what I turn is Aluminum, Brass and PVC. $$