On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 13:52:49 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Paul T." wrote in message
.. .

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.

There's a lot of good advice in your post, Paul, but I strongly disagree
with you about this one. I used mostly carbide when I worked in a commercial
shop but I would never recommend it for a hobby shop. I have both right now,
which I use on my SB, and I don't have to pay for my carbide. Still, I
consider it to be my last choice when doing one-at-a-time work. I use it for
abrasive materials and for those rare occassions when I'm cutting very hard
steel.

And I'm not a Luddite about it. I'm the Tooling editor for Machining
magazine, and I spend a lot of my days researching and extolling the virtues
of new cutter designs and materials. They are amazing. If I could inventory
enough of them and if I could affort all the holders, I might even be able
to do as much with them as I can do with a few pieces of 3/8" HSS. But it
would never quite match it.

adam smith is cutting aluminum; unless he's making his castings from
hypereutectics, there's no reason in the world to use carbide for
aluminum -- unless you're doing batch lots of 1,000 pieces or so. My HSS
cutters ground for aluminum get sharpened once every year or two. g

I realize the arguments about this can go on forever, but, FWIW, I'm well
aware of the latest in positive-rake, cobalt-enriched, multi-coated inserts,
and I find no use at all for them in my shop. Not even for a zero-rake piece
of C2. That is, until I have to cut some filled plastic or to face off some
piece of really hard steel.

Ed Huntress

Once again I agree with Ed.

Damn..this is getting scary........


Gunner

"The people who believe that, as a result of industrial development, life is about to become a hell,
or may be one already, are guilty, at least, of sloppy pronouncements.
On page 8 of Earth in the Balance, Al Gore claims that his study of the arms race gave him
"a deeper appreciation for the most horrifying fact in all our lives:
civilization is now capable of destroying itself."

In the first place, the most horrifying fact in many of our lives is that
our ex-spouse has gotten ahold of our ATM card.
And civilization has always been able to destroy itself. The Greeks of ancient Athens,
who had a civilization remarkable for lack of technological progress
during its period of greatest knowledge and power, managed to destroy themselves just fine."
-- P.J. O'Rourke, All the trouble in the world. The lighter side of famine, pestilence, destruction and death.