On 21/08/2019 14:00, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"David Billington" wrote in message
...
I make various parts with tube or solid bar up to about 12mm so a
bit smaller than what you're doing. I use a slitting saw mounted on
an arbor held in my lathe spindle and a fixture to hold the material
mounted in the lathe tool post. Once set-up I can accurately turn
out parts to close length tolerances and square. Sometimes I run
coolant sometimes I just apply it manually. Cutting is almost always
done with the power feed and I usually do 100+ items at a time.

Sounds interesting. Material, speed, feed, tool life?


The largest number I produce probably numbers around 2000 - 2500 to date
of a small spacer made from 316 seamless 6mm OD tubing 1mm wall, cutting
speed as recommended for the material and HSS the lathe set for that
speed or the next lower, feed is what I'm happy with. For that job I
normally use a fine tooth slitting saw so have plenty of teeth to work
with and haven't retired a saw yet due to wear just occasionally I don't
tighten the tube clamp enough and the tube spins which damages the saw,
I must have cut a 1000 on one saw as I normally do them in batches of
250. I have plenty of saws as when a local engineering work was
demolished some years ago a mate who knew the demolition contractor put
in a bid for me and got me what is likely to be a lifetimes supply of
slitting saws, side and face cutter and slab mills. The company did a
lot of fine work so the slitting saws vary in size from about 2" up to
6", the ones I use for the job mentioned before are IIRC 2.5" x 1/32"
with fine teeth.