"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:56:07 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ed
Huntress" quickly quoth:


"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in message
s.net...

Yes it would. C2 is the recommended grade for stainless.

Harold


If you have an older lathe with marginal rigidity and you still want to
use
carbide to turn steel, the newer micrograin carbides are more likely to
stand up than any of the traditional grades, including C2. Micrograin
carbides are tougher but they're not quite as wear resistant. On an old
lathe that should make little difference.

Can you recommend any sites or articles for learning more about the
micrograin carbides, Ed? What are the different types used for? I
see C2, C3, and C4 used on saw blades but don't know the differences.

Having been away from it for a few years, I can't recommend any particular
supplier, but I'll take a look online today and see if there's a source that
explains it in a way that would be useful for our purposes. I'll try to get
to it before noon.

Basically, the background story is that micrograin carbides were developed
around 10 years ago to answer three needs: greater shock resistance, for
interrupted cuts; sharper edges, for finishing work and for low-force
precision cutting; and for handling positive rakes without chipping. These
requirements are all for production machines and moldmaking, but those are
the same needs we have when we're using machines designed for high-speed
steel tooling: older lathes and mills.

I have had little opportunity to try them on my old South Bend but the
milling cutters I tried for turning worked very well. I managed to chip one
of them but that was my mistake. You still have to be aware that these are
more brittle than HSS and treat them accordingly, but they're a hell of a
lot tougher than the traditional, coarse-grained carbides.

I'll look around and get back to you.

--
Ed Huntress