Advice on carbide insert boring bar

[mike-sid]

So I ended up buying one of these Ebay boring bar and a couple micro 100 boring bars. I shoulg have consulted PixMan about the ebay bar, I hope I did good.

[Mayhem]

Looks like a good price on a very good brand.

[EdK]

You bought a good quality tool so don't worry about it.

Ed

[PixMan]

 OMG, that's a GREAT price on a very high quality bar! That one may have the graduations along the bar so you don't need to have three hands when you set it in a holder.

One holds and moves the boring bar.
One holds the wrench to lock the bar in the holder.
One holds the scale to get the measurement making sure the bar sticks out far enough to bore through the whole part.

So now you need good inserts for it, and Walter just came out with some new ones that you'd love. They aren't cheap, but you don't have to buy a whole pack of ten.

CPMT21.51-MP4 grade WPP20S. edp# 6481732, list $9.75 each.

FWIW, that boring bar has a list price of $139.00, so I'd have to say you earned a !

I'd buy that last one in a heartbeat if I didn't already have solid carbide boring bars in that size range.

[mike-sid]

(01-16-2015, 08:30 AM)PixMan Wrote: FWIW, that boring bar has a list price of $139.00, so I'd have to say you earned a !

I'm learning from the best

[mike-sid]

(01-17-2015, 09:08 PM)PixMan Wrote:  
So now you need good inserts for it, and Walter just came out with some new ones that you'd love. They aren't cheap, but you don't have to buy a whole pack of ten.

CPMT21.51-MP4 grade WPP20S. edp# 6481732, list $9.75 each.

Cool! I'll be on the lookout for a few.

FYI let me know if you come across any deals on Ebay on the PDXX 09 inserts for my V555. I love that face mill, looking to stock up on some more inserts, they seem to be scarce.

[PixMan]

Ooh...I forgot you have that face mill! It went obsolete as of January 1st of 2010 when Walter absorbed Valenite because it was sourced from their then-partner company in France, Safety (pronounced Saf-uh-tee). That partnership was dissolved on that date, though the inserts remained available until this year.

There is a company in Michigan started by the Valenite milling products manager who was let go in the merger, MetalCraft Cutting Tools, and they have those inserts. I'll keep my eyes open but I don't often see them on eBay. That cutter is one of the best overall lead angle (60º) face mills ever made. It can get beautiful finishes and still plow metal off at high rates when you want to push it.

Stock up when you find inserts and hold onto that cutter!

[PixMan]

By the way, regarding Micro 100 boring bars:

Micro 100 boring bars can be easily ground to new cutting edges using a diamond grinding wheel. I do it all the time in my shop with a 320 grit wheel on my surface grinder, usually freehand. When I want "precise", I put the Micro 100 boring bar in my school-made sine bar grinding vise.

Yes you can hone them, but a diamond hone could take a LONG time to get rid of a chipped tip or cutting edge.

I assume you mean 6061 aluminum. Butter for carbide! Run top speed and let 'er rip. I do recommend downloading the Micro 100 catalog, it's full of great information. When I was buying and using them at work, they offered only the dead sharp bars, designated "BB-xxxxxx". A simple code, the first three numbers after the "BB-" is the minimum bore size, the numbers following are the depth it can go. So a BB-320800 can start in a Ø .320 bore and get at least .800" deep.

They now offer TiN coated bars, and ones with a small radius on the tip that help them last a lot longer in steels and stainless steels, getting better finishes than the sharp ones. I'd skip the coating, it's not a big advantage because their sub-micron grade of carbide is so good, and it's gone as soon as you touch it up on a grinder.

Hope that helps.

Ken

[Highpower]

(01-17-2015, 09:08 PM)PixMan Wrote: So now you need good inserts for it, and Walter just came out with some new ones that you'd love. They aren't cheap, but you don't have to buy a whole pack of ten.

CPMT21.51-MP4 grade WPP20S. edp# 6481732, list $9.75 each.

My question is where do you guys go to find these kinds of inserts? I tried looking at my (limited) usual sources and came up empty. Looking at ebay for Walter inserts all I see are what appears to be old stock with lots of dust on the the packaging, and nothing that even comes close to the new number given above. So if you need an insert NOW, who do you normally look to? 

I need to try and find better inserts but obviously I'm looking in all the wrong places. Waiting for something to "turn up" on ebay just on a chance gets old pretty quickly.

[DaveH]

Find! ................... I wish, ............. I buy mine from Iscar not cheap. Would be cheaper off ebay if I took the trouble to try and find them but I'm a lazy so and so.  
I'm a bit like Ken I would only buy good (branded) quality inserts. I have seen guys buy cheap inserts and they didn't cut to well (in the home workshop).
 
DaveH