Setting up with insert tooling on small/medium lathe for budget (less than 100usd)

[pinstripe]

This is how I part 4140 chromoly @1500rpm with the 5 dollar parting tool and 0.6 dollar insert.

Nice. Some of those cheap Chinese inserts are impressive for the price.

[CPeter]

I have two sets of those cheap tools with the TT inserts and one thing that helped me was replacing the screws. I broke one and while trying to find a replacement learned that the are #6 x32, the same as electrical switch and outlet covers. I picked up a pack of ½" long ones at Home Depot and replaced all on mine. You can tighten them down much tighter than the Allen head ones that came with the tools.
CPeter

[MattiJ]

Nice. Some of those cheap Chinese inserts are impressive for the price.

Decent cut with the CCMT09.... VP15TF insert on rusty scraptanium weight lifting bar found on the yard:

Sounds like I am pretty much maxed out on horsepower on later half of the video.
(variable feed rate, experimenting how big feed motor I should be looking for http://i.imgur.com/rTM50aZ.jpg )

[mattthemuppet]

CCMT extra corner tool has been on my to-do list but I am too cheap to buy it. Shouldnt be more than 10 minute milling job on the Aciera F1, actually one of the reasonable sized projects for my mill.

Been collecting scrapped inserts for the future use but my cheap ebay insert pile has been groving at a rate of 10 times faster than consumption.

You can get them as center turning tools and boring bar holders for the usual $6-8 on eBay and the like. Look like a neat idea but I've gone through 2 insert to in the last 2 years so I don't need them yet

[macona]

I use those little DCGT inserts on my 10ee for just about everything. I think I have some old valenite tool holders that I got from a pile of craigslist stuff years ago. I also picked up a carbide shanked boring bar that holds them as well.

I have not tried the chinese inserts, I use the super positive inserts from vardex which work great for aluminum and plastic and if you are careful they are fine in steel and stainless.

[MattiJ]

Looking around at some videos and writeups on insert tooling and use I came across two references to using the obtuse corners for simple flat facing cuts and for roughing cuts with a special holder. Then switch to a second holder with the acute angle tips for final shaping or working into inside corners. I thought that was a brilliant idea for maximizing the use of the inserts. Another use of the obtuse corners was on a flycutter for the mill. Again for simple flat face work with no inside corners to worry about.

And yet another option was that the obtuse corners are tougher for use on interrupted cuts where you do not need an inside 90 shoulder or step.

And here is budget tooling to use the obtuse corner of CCMT insert:
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale...nktest=0&tc=af
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale...nktest=0&tc=af

(just replace 1212 with 1616 if you want beefier shank etc etc.)

SCMCN is extra handy if you mill off chunk from the side so that the 80 degree insert tip is more exposed, then you can use it for inside and outside chamfering.