The Art of Lathe Tool Grinding ...

[Bill in Ky]

Twenty years ago, not long after I had bought my 10" Sheldon lathe, a friend of mine told me about a widow he knew who's late husband was a machinest.
He said that she had some of his things that she wanted to get rid of.

He carried me over to meet her. Her husband had died a year after they had retired to my area. He had worked in the aircraft industry.
I bought an old flat top Kennedy chest she had, an Interapid 310 indicator, and a 2" mic. As I was leaving she said "oh yeah, you can have this stuff too". She handed me 3 cigar boxes and another bigger box of tool bits that he had ground. I still get them out and look at them from time to time and am amazed at the work that went into crafting these. As the title of this says, I do consider it an Art.

These are ground from drill rod ...



These are ground from 3/8 HSS



3/8 brazed carbide



HSS and carbide boring bars

[SGW]

...and THAT is why one ought to learn to grind one's own toolbits, instead of relying on carbide inserts. Presumably, each one of those was ground for a very specific job.

[Greg Menke]

I scored some similar tools, in this case the guy's dad had passed away a few years back- they were cleaning the place out to sell. His dad had literally dug himself a little shop about 6' on a side out of the dirt in the basement- plus a trench you could walk through if you bent over, snaking around the rest of the basement, all kinds of stuff packed up on the dirt alongside. He had a complete 9" SB and Atlas horizontal mill down there (son is not selling those at present...) and a bench loaded with stuff. He could have worked his entire shop without moving more than 3 steps in any direction. Anyhow I bought up all his old HSS bits, many looking very like the pics above.

I use them as grinding reference only- except for two internal threading tools which I use because they are so nice and I can't even approximate them yet... Any chance at all of getting stuff like this shouldn't be passed up- even if you have to pay some money.

Regards,

Greg

[Tin Falcon]

Bill:
Yes lots of skill involved in that . I came across a similar find a couple years ago at the flea market. A box with a nice handfull of tool bit for a few bucks.



The boring bar ground from the square blank is one of the lot. The one made from drill rod is my own creation
Tin

[Buzzer John]

I scored some similar tools, in this case the guy's dad had passed away a few years back- they were cleaning the place out to sell. His dad had literally dug himself a little shop about 6' on a side out of the dirt in the basement- plus a trench you could walk through if you bent over, snaking around the rest of the basement, all kinds of stuff packed up on the dirt alongside. He had a complete 9" SB and Atlas horizontal mill down there (son is not selling those at present...) and a bench loaded with stuff. He could have worked his entire shop without moving more than 3 steps in any direction. Anyhow I bought up all his old HSS bits, many looking very like the pics above.

I use them as grinding reference only- except for two internal threading tools which I use because they are so nice and I can't even approximate them yet... Any chance at all of getting stuff like this shouldn't be passed up- even if you have to pay some money.

Regards,

Greg

Say Greg, Was that house located in Carney near Harford Rd? I once knew a machinest/ gunsmith in that area that had a set up very similliar to that. His boy was also a machinest so it probably wasn't the same man. John