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I remember in the mid to late sixties doing my apprenticeship and my City & Guilds. We found that if we sharpened our HSS tool bits (tipped tools were for the Gentry then) with a small radius at the cutting point, run the lathe slow with plenty of coolant we would get a really good finish and good precision to. Remember these machines would have been quite old but in good condition. After all they had been abused by years of cruelty by oiks just like me lol. I could tell you a couple i stories about things i saw that would make your hair curl.
Ha ha! I don't have much hair, but you're welcome to try.
I've actually put the model engineering to one side for now. I was just getting frustrated and in a bad mood which is not very handy really. I've made 2 small engines one of which won't run, and partially completed a 'Grasshopper' which I fear is unlikely to hop anywhere.
Actually the turning and boring has gone reasonably well, but milling has definitely had its moments.
 
When i got into the second year there was a guy in our group none of us knew. Turned out he had been in the second year for four years if i remember correctly.
I was working on a big surface plate, cant remember doing what now but this guy was working on the cylindrical grinder about ten foot away. The wheel was around 15 to 18in diameter and 2in wide.
Suddenly there was a grumbling sound behind me followed a massive bang. His work piece fell between the wheel and the machine, luckily there was no room for his work piece to wedge between.
Turns out he had tightened the drive dog then put it between the centres.
Another time we were told to go to the end of the work shop while he was drilling a hole through a round section that in turn had a hole through the centre of his work, held in one vee block, then a second vee block, in a vice not bolted down.
That was at Croydon College.
 
The Engineer's Black book is a handy pocket book too.
Different to the Zeus tables and not trying to compete with the machinery handbook.
Australian by origin, easy to get here, and very legible.
 
The Engineer's Black book is a handy pocket book too.
Different to the Zeus tables and not trying to compete with the machinery handbook.
Australian by origin, easy to get here, and very legible.
Not seen that before but it looks very handy as proper working reference... like a bridge between the bare bones of a Zeus book and the overwhelming mass of info in MH.
 
I seem to remember an engineering book in my apprenticeship days, it looked like a bible, it was a right tomb but i would have liked to be able to afford it.
 
That would likely be "Machinery's Handbook" - you may not want to afford the cost of a printed version but the 26th Edition is available as a free download in .PDF format.
 
I remember in the mid to late sixties doing my apprenticeship and my City & Guilds. We found that if we sharpened our HSS tool bits (tipped tools were for the Gentry then) with a small radius at the cutting point, run the lathe slow with plenty of coolant we would get a really good finish and good precision to. Remember these machines would have been quite old but in good condition. After all they had been abused by years of cruelty by oiks just like me lol. I could tell you a couple i stories about things i saw that would make your hair curl.


HSS tools are absolutely fine for home workshops. Tipped tools are really for big high production machines, like taking 5 mm cuts in hard steel. HSS actually gives better finish and precision on smaller-scale machining. Most home lathes won't handle those kinds of cuts anyway.
 
HSS tools are absolutely fine for home workshops. Tipped tools are really for big high production machines, like taking 5 mm cuts in hard steel. HSS actually gives better finish and precision on smaller-scale machining. Most home lathes won't handle those kinds of cuts anyway.

Depends what you want to machine, if you're working with part hardened steel, stainless, tool steel, titanium etc, then the additional wear and heat resistance of carbide is essential, regardless of the size of machine.

The finish is largely down to how good an edge you can get on the tool, this is easier for mere mortals to achieve with HSS, but using diamond laps or wheels, you can sharpen a carbide tool to give an equivalent surface finish to HSS.


However, you're right to point out that a small machine won't like being given the standard insertable tooling that you'd use on a production machine.

Where the power of the machine is an issue, it is better to use Brazed Carbide which has been sharpened like a HSS tool bit, or choose small inserts with positive/neutral rake and small nose radius to minimise the cutting forces.

On a mill, you have to be mindful of the rigidity which will limit the feed rate, and avoid using overly large carbide endmills or insertable tools which need a higher feed rate and pressure than the machine can accommodate.



I've hard-turned steel at HRc56 successful on a myford super 7 with a small CBN insert, and turned a lot of D2 and S13 steel on the same lathe using insertable carbide tools.

I also hard milled a form cutter from HSS using carbide tooling on a Bridgeport mill, which is one of those tasks which ostensibly can't be done, but was in fact fine (well there were a lot of orange hot chips, but it produced the desired result, and didn't cause catastrophic damage to the tool or mill)



I think OP's machines are probably sufficient to use smaller sizes of insert tooling without too much trouble. Something big like a CCMT2520 would definitely be out, but anything upto 1204 would probably be quite comfortable, and 1608 might be doable in softer materials.
 
That would likely be "Machinery's Handbook" - you may not want to afford the cost of a printed version but the 26th Edition is available as a free download in .PDF format.
Link?
 
No worries, there are two other books I'd recommend:

The roebuck "Zeus" databook - it's a little plastic coated workshop reference for all kinds of useful info you might need a reminder of day to day, like tap-drill sizes, bearing fits etc. costs about a fiver, and well worth it.

A copy of Machinery's Handbook - this is the exact opposite of the Zeus book, a huge amount of info on everything you could ever need to know for machining; bought new it's really quite pricey, so as a hobbyist I'd keep a look-out on eBay and pick up an older copy at a decent price when one comes up.
I still use my Zeus pretty much every time I'm working metal. I bought mine when I started my apprenticeship in 1976. It's the first metric addition released in 1974.
 

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