HSS are cheaper, more forgiving, and can be easily custom ground for a job.
HSS is still the standard for lathe use, especially in a non-production
environment.

BTW what do you use for drill bits???


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Tony

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Don't let any oldtimers talk you into using HSS tool bits for this, that
was
cool in its day but times have changed, and its a lot easier to get
repeatable results with the carbide tools, especially for learners. For
this
size lathe you would need the positive relief type tools, take a look at
http://www.thegallos.com/carbide.htm for some background on this.