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Posted: 7/30/2012 6:15:05 PM EDT
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I am setting up shop and I am trying to decide if I want to go with soldered carbide tools that can be sharpened on a grinder, or if I want to use indexable inserts.
Any personal preferences? Tips? Thanks |
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Indexable insert tools for 95% of your work. When you get a worn cutter, it take less than a min to either rotate or change the insert and your back in action.
Now having stated that, will come a time that you will need HSS cutters, so may as well pick up a few new ones if you have not ground a cutter before. that way you at least can see the angles needed for a clean cutter when you start to make them yourself. Not sure what tools you need, but tend to favor TT-321 inserts since I can get them dirt cheap, and base a lot of my specialty built tools off that insert when I can when making them, including my Boring bar cutters for on the mill with a boring head. And to point out, most brazed on carbide cutter do not have any back rake angle or chip breaker on them. |
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What kind of shop? I suspect from your question you are new at machine work, and setting up a garage shop for your own use. In that case, I would go with HSS ground toolbits with a few brazed toolbits for hard stuff. Gunsmithing, but a bit more than that. Call it gunsmithing plus prototyping. Not exactly a garage shop, but I guess there are some similarities. Im not running a pack of CNC mills or anything production like. I will be working with steel and aluminum almost exclusively. Not terribly new at machining, just never had the option to start fresh. Ive been leaning towards indexables, just wanted to see if there were any angles that I was missing in my comparison. |
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Who says you can't regrind your indexable inserts? I do it all the time on lathe tools. It's practically hopeless without a proper diamond wheel though. WWW.latheinserts.com will get you setup with what you need for about the same price as a cheap diamond wheel. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Who says you can't regrind your indexable inserts? I do it all the time on lathe tools. It's practically hopeless without a proper diamond wheel though. WWW.latheinserts.com will get you setup with what you need for about the same price as a cheap diamond wheel. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile True. But with a nice tool grinder and a cupped diamond wheel, I can get a lot of life out of an insert. Whether it's worth my time is debatable. When I say "I do it all the time" it's because the manual lathes here are about a 300 yard walk from the tool crib, and the tool grinder is about a 15 foot walk 
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I have an entire drawer full of resharpened & new inserts close to 200 inserts. And some new ceramics, i dont use them because I find the brazed bits and HSS and cobalt bits just as well. When you buy indexables you buy the tool holder and inserts are sold individually, yeah I got sucked into that inserts are sold by the box of 10 at $10ea. I have probably close to 30 bits in all. My first ever indexable endmill cost me $300 and inserts were $25 ea, a week later I returned it and never looked back. I sprung for the ACME threading insert holder for 7 TPI for lathe repair parts, its still sitting in the Kennedy.
Even working in the Aerospace industry we used brazed tooling because indexables became exceedingly expensive, some of the tool holders themselves were $250-500 and inserts were $10-25 ea. For boring bars I used endmills and flat bottomed drills that I made, at least with endmills you just rotate the thing to a fresh flute and continue. I still use them on my machine when my brazed bar isn't stout enough. In Aerospace I was the go to guy for tool making and resharpening when you absolutely needed it now and not in 3 days which was 90% of the time, I had extra work it was fun. The key to it is lots of tool holders already set to height, digress Im short on tool holders. You can hitshars tooling for indexables, they are also sold on Ebay but at a markup plus excessive shipping. I have several of their cutting tools, and a chuck mounting plate that I have a Polish 4 jaw mounted to. Do some research on tool holders and inserts there are some inserts with 4-6 useable corners on them, in addition to that special holders are around to get the other corners used. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/lathe-toolholders-inserts-213637/ This took me awhile to find the first time, its worth investigating if you go with inserts. |
I recently picked up some HSS inserts from Arthur Warner Co, they are T15 HSS and so far I am very happy with them. They are great for smaller lathes or when you want to take a few ten thousands off a piece. very sharp and easy to resharpen. They sell both the insets in standard size/forms and good quality tool holders. All USA made.
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| Personally I prefer inserts for most purposes but as mentioned they can be spendy. There are several tool suppliers that will give you the holder (depends though, they won't give you the supersex facemill for instance but they will give you a nice parting blade/insert drill) if you buy 1 or 2 boxes of inserts. Just be aware that those boxes of inserts can cost as much or at least half of what the holder itself will cost. |
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