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+--- Thread: The Carbide Saga (/thread-3329.html)
The Carbide Saga - the penguin - 09-25-2016
I spent the morning, going through and making a list of what tool takes what carbide insert, as my memory isn't what it use to be. I also ran an inventory of what carbide inserts I have on hand.
This exercise revealed over 100 tools that use carbide inserts, between mill and lathe tooling. Those tool use 39 different kinds of inserts, then divided into grades, coatings and tip radius.. So its get complicated.
When I first stated out, I bought carbide inserts from various dealers, based on the phases of the moon, the breast size of the salesgirl, the coolness factor of the look of the tool and other various different reasons, all of them based on absolutely no knowledge of what I was doing. I made every rookie mistake and invented a few more as I went along.
I looked at the better tooling and said, I don't need that, the cost seemed excessive, then went out and spent more ( in the long run) on "cheaper tooling".
I bought tools and insert ran them for 10 minutes and relegated them to the junk drawer, run others for a couple of months, then the siren call of the latest and greatest made that tool suspect. I would shutter to think on the amount of money I spent doing the wrong thing. I did learn what not to do, but at time still make some errors (just not as many).
Then I started to read and listen, a lot of the time they seemed like they were speaking a foreign language, but slowly and surely, the fog is starting to lift. At times the various forums only muddied the water, everyone seemed to announce they were the only true and enlightened one, that their comments seemed to make sense, then the next response, muddied the waters again. I real appreciate the help Ken (Pixman) has given me, pointing me into the right direction. At times my questions must have seem really stupid, but he has alway helped.
I've reached the point where I can't tell you want to buy, but I can will some extreme accuracy, tell you what not to buy. I have 5 parting tools, some work okay on certain thing, but fail on other thing, some don't work worth a crap regardless of the material, but with the new one on order (recommended by Ken), hopefully my problem in this area will go away.
I bought 5 face mills, each time buying a better one (more expensive), before I learned the tool wasn't the issue, as each of them used the same type of insert (TPG/TPU), meant for turning on a lathe and isn't rigid enough for good mill work. A better tool holding a cheap insert, didn't gain me anything.
I have 3 kinds of carbide inserts, that I have no idea what tool they go to, why I bought them or where I got them from. They may be for tools that I threw away in moment of rage and frustration.
Again I'm a boiler technician that owns machine tools, not a machinist, I just play one in the shop.
RE: The Carbide Saga - Mayhem - 09-25-2016
Now I can see why you buy so many tool holders for your QCTP.
RE: The Carbide Saga - oldskoolron - 09-26-2016
my bank manager says I got a tool fetish and the blokes at trade tools direct said if I didn't go there to shop their kids would starve , im glad im not the only one that does this lol