new lathe older than most of us

[brookie456]

On the case for a 127 gear, Mrs Brookie glad you are happy with the bits, nice to meet you and get that L5 rolling I'll be in touch

 

[chap]

You can make a holder to take nackered carbide end mills.
Just drill and ream some CRS for whatever size shank you have most of, and drill and tap for a set screw.
Mine has a reamed hole at 45 deg (to spindle axis) at one end and another perpendicular at the other. Grind them up on the green wheel.
The cutters work best when not super sharp.

 

[gavuk]

Hi Chap,unfortunatly no longer have access to end mills ,good news is ,some of the places i have worked the lads hated hss tools and used to chuck them away or give me them (as they knew i liked using them ),did notice the holder i have doesn't fit in my toolpost and will require modifying though,in truth eventually i may require some boring (boreing? )bars but i'm covered for normal tools ,i may make up some adjustable boring tools....and something to hold all the carbide tips i have ..
I have for years used broken end mills, mounted in round bar 12mm, to use as centre punches, 6mm shank end mills work great ,used them many times for tapping sheared bolts .round.....

 

[Pete.]

I use cheap triangle carbide inserts off eBay for most of my turning nowadays. I made a holder from a piece of scrap hot-rolled steel and when I want a nice finish I rough out with the carbide and finish with HSS.
The inserts are £5 for 10 and double-sided so that's less than 10p per cutting edge. I can do dours of work with one tip and never need to touch-up with the grinder. I also use the tips in my home-made flycutter in the mill. Still on my first edge of the first tip on that and I've been using it all weekend, high speed, interrupted cuts - no way you can do that with HSS.

 

[gavuk]

The white tub is half full, of the inserts at the front ....some of the larger tools won't fit the L5.....so they may go back into work,didn't realise the tips were that cheap tbh ..now if anybody has a spare knurler straight or cross cut ....cheap ...pm me ....

 

[graffian]

I like CN inserts, got tools that use 4 edges for plain turning and another that uses the other 4 edges for facing. I just paid less 3 quid for a box of ten inserts and I will get 80 cutting tips from those.

I get a better finish with carbide than hss, turn the speed up max and keept he feed high. And aim for a decent last cut, if I take a thou or less off I often get ****e surface finish.

 

[stormin]

...some of the larger tools won't fit the L5.....so they may go back into work,

Time to start machining the larger tools down to fit I would say.

Also as Graffian says Carbide tips don't like taking fine cuts as they're not very sharp and tend to rub. Best to make them work with a decent cut to get a good finish.

 

[gavuk]

Time to start machining the larger tools down to fit I would say.

Also as Graffian says Carbide tips don't like taking fine cuts as they're not very sharp and tend to rub. Best to make them work with a decent cut to get a good finish.

I haven't ruled out carbide ,YET,but in my experience ,with negative rake ,rounded tips and with wear in the crossslide,they can be a mare to use on smaller lathes,if the L5 will cope i won't waste the tips,especially as i don't have a suds pump at present ,which i willneed to make life easier with hss .
All the tools have their uses ,but the swarf gets so damn hot when running tips ......still need to get the lathe aligned first....

 

[superls]

Thats the exact lathe ive got, like you say, bit noisy but moe than upto anything im likely to throw at it, mine came with tonnes of change gears, a few really big ones (bigger than 100T) so ill have a look if theres a 127

 

[gavuk]

Do you use tipped tools ok on your L5?...i appreciate wear will have a major effect on their use ,also top end speed ,i have read a 63t gear can be used for a lot of metric threads as the error is minute

 

[shenion]

a 50/63 combination of gears (or 63/25) will work ok for short threads.

The 44/56 is even closer.

I use Txxx inserts on may Craftsman. They cut much easier than most HSS if you get inserts with the same angles (most have no rake/clearance.) People say carbide take a lot more force, not necessarily true as most have 0 deg rake.

I use them all the time as I can just keep going and don't need to sharpen them.

They are inexpensive, keep an eye on ebay. I picked up 10 Mitsubishi inserts for $12. Lots of plant closings and the liquidators will flog the unused tooling on ebay.

They don't like interrupted cuts on hard metals. Tend to chip (hard to see as the chips are very small.) I do use HSS sometimes for final cuts, but rarely.

I have a 5-piece set of holders, that gives 5-different tool directions (center, left, right etc.) Much easier than grinding different bits for each angle (facing left, turning, facing right and shoulder cuts.)