another boring topic

[lugnut]

As I start tooling up for my latest machine (got a X3 mill) ;D I have a question about carbide boring bars. I can't afford to have two sets (C2 and C6) of boring bars. So can I get by with only one type, say C2. I think C2 is the toughest of the two. What say you all? ???
Thanks
Mel

 

[compound driver 2]

The long and the short of it is you need tools that work for the metal your cutting.
Buy the tools as you need them and not in sets.

 

[Stan]

What are you machining that you need carbide for?

If you do need carbide, does an x3 have the speed and horsepower required?

 

[compound driver 2]

Stan
Over the time iv been on this site I have seen at most a handfull of jobs that needed carbide tooling. 99% of whats built on here would machine just fine with stelite or HSS tooling. A lot of the members buy carbide because its plastered all over the junk store tool shops for next to no money. It annoys me that people like harbour freight and the like push carbide and ignore the other cheaper and more easily used and ground options like HSS. The worst part for me is people that get sucked into using indexable tooling for jobs that just do not need them and in many cases would require different inserts to the ones supplied.
I use Mitsubushi carbide tooling every day simply because im making a living from machining and the tips offer me fast repeatability on tooling should one go dull or break. I suppose I must have 40 odd tip styles in my tool box and maybe 20 holders and each metal or material gets machined with the correct tip. For my modeling I still use stelite and HSS with far cheaper and in some cases better results.

many of the people on here do fantastic work on very interesting engines both steam/air and IC. It would be a great bennefit if some one made available a good descriptive course on grinding tools from HSS or again stelite. Its not hard to do and many tools can be made from a few lumps of tool steel.