Karl Townsend wrote:

Did you try the "power feed and lots o' coolant" with the HSS tools??

Don't think it would work anywhere near as well.

I do have and use both HSS and carbide insert parting off tools.
They both have their fields where they outperform the other. It is not HSS
or carbide, it is *when* to use which one.

I prefer the HSS for delicate work, because it has less cutting forces.
What "delicate work" is, is up to you to find out. For me, it is below
about 20mm diameter. A HSS-blade 2mm wide can do up to 50mm diam. on free
cutting steel in one pass with power feed. Needs coolant, is getting
interesting. :-) In almost pure Al, I wouldn't even try it with that setup.

To those who pray the carbide insert parting off tools and damn the HSS:
Just try to part off some 10 x 0.5mm brass tube.


Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de