tools?

[milwright]

got a small 3 in one macine came with some hss tooling must be some where that can supply carbides or better tools think its 1/2 also has mill drill mt3 taper any recomandations on tools?

[Oldbrock]

With a light 3 in one you will be better off to stick with HSS. You will find that carbide subjects a light machine to too much loading. Just my opinion. Peter

[Mark Hockett]

Theres nothing wrong with HSS tooling on that machine. Because carbide tools are more brittle they are ground at different angles which causes them to not be as sharp as a HSS tool can be if sharpened properly. If you try to sharpen carbide to the same angles as HSS it wont hold up very well. Because the cutting edge on carbide is not as sharp it requires more HP and a higher SFPM to get it to cut well. Most small machines don't have enough HP to make it work like it should. This is not to say you can't use carbide on small machines it just requires using positive rake carbide tools which don't last due to the weak cutting edge. On my CNC lathe (16"X30") I use negative rake tooling and get hundreds of steel parts per cutting edge on an insert. These inserts will wear out before I ever see a chipped edge. On my smaller lathe (13"X40") I have positive rake carbide tooling and get nowhere near the same number of parts per cutting edge. I only use the carbide for the speed and convenience of not having to sharpen tools and since this is for pay a customer is paying for the inserts.