08-30-2013, 01:35 PM
The down side or advantage depending on viewpoint of these holders is that they do make it very easy to grind your own tools, which sometimes means folks don't think about tool design as much as they might if they were grinding all three facets of the tool(incidentally the three facets, 1.front, 2.top and 3.lead) all three "ideal" angles vary depending on material, hardness, tool grade, speeds and feeds among many other lesser factors. As a result it's easy to form a one size fits all to lathe tooling which can cause the sort of thing that happened to Graham.
This is just a friendly caution, there is no "Easy answer" only a compromise, I have the same gripe with indexable carbide tools, on day one it seems like a panacea, but as time goes by you learn that you need to know quite a lot to use them properly, even as a hobbyist, maybe more so as a hobbyist, as many professionals work in one field or material where a hobbyist tends to do a bit of everything not to mention the problems associated with "found" materials.
Best Regards Rick
This is just a friendly caution, there is no "Easy answer" only a compromise, I have the same gripe with indexable carbide tools, on day one it seems like a panacea, but as time goes by you learn that you need to know quite a lot to use them properly, even as a hobbyist, maybe more so as a hobbyist, as many professionals work in one field or material where a hobbyist tends to do a bit of everything not to mention the problems associated with "found" materials.
Best Regards Rick
Whatever it is, do it today, Tomorrow may not be an option and regret outlasts fatigue.