Carbide tools...

[ScaredyCat]

If carbide turning tools are so easy and cheap to make*, why are there no 'entry level' ones available - or is 'entry level' regarded as £30 a pop?

*providing you have all the equipment to make them.

 

[lurker]

Assume you mean a wooden handle, and a length of steel to fit a carbide bit to?

Well to make and market (with some profit) £30 sounds reasonable to me.

I have made a few using stuff I had lying around and then bought some bits to fit.

 

[lurker]

Here is a useful post on the subject

post1185748.html#p1185748

 

[ScaredyCat]

Assume you mean a wooden handle, and a length of steel to fit a carbide bit to?

Well to make and market (with some profit) £30 sounds reasonable to me.

Yes, I understand that buying one made in the UK might well work out to be around £30 with some profit included and I have no quarrel with that. What I don't quite understand is that that's the same price as banggood / aliexpress sell for where they can be churned out by the manufacturers hundreds at a time.

 

[lurker]

Maybe there is no market for hundreds because any turner will knock one up in less than an hour. Save thirty quid and have the satisfaction of making something.

 

[TopCat 32]

loads on Ebay, Chinese made my guess, about 16-18 quid each, just bought a couple as i want to turn some resin and have read carbide are better for this, not best quality ferrells not on straight, or fantastic finish on handles, but im not cutting wood with the ferrells or handle, so i'm not too bothered , tips cut fine nice finish at the moment, maybe wont last as long as a branded one but when time comes i can always buy a higher quality cutter for about 5 quid, cant see the point of paying £70+ for a tool with a fancy handle that does the same job 1 that cost £50 less

 

[Lazurus]

I do a lot with resin and hybrid blanks, and yes carbide does give a great finish but negative rake scrapers if used correctly - as stated above it is the carbide itself that does the work, the rest is just a holder, I purchased a Hercules from the tool post and also have the Lyle JAMIESON hollowing system with a carbide or steel cutter. I find carbide is great for finishing cuts but for hogging out they are limited on the amount they can remove compared to gouges.

 

[ScaredyCat]

I got a couple of carbide tools last week from https://www.ukwoodcraftandcarbidechisels.co.uk/ and have turned a 3 bowls as a learning experience. I got a round one and a square one, pointy one is next I guess.

I'm interested in getting opinions on what to expect from their use. So far this is what I've been doing and my observations, any hints or tips appreciated.

I use square one to make sure the blank is round and balanced, The cutting edge when going in, what I'd consider a plunging action doesn't seem all that great, I mean it does it, but I get much better results from using the corners and sweeping across. I expected the plunging to be a bit more aggressive than it seems to be when pushing in. I also use this for flattening the front and back faces which seems remarkable easy - again, using the side of the blade, not the front. I also use it for squaring up and flattening the interior of bowls.

I use the round one for clearing out most of the interior of the bowls and I get beautiful streamers flying off (I get the same for the square one) . Also use it for generating a little bit of decoration, I prefer using the round one as its roundness seems to help the flow of the tool. I try to get a clean light cut towards the end and it give a nice smoothish finish. If I don't ramp up the speed a bit more then It can mean the surface gets 'bumpy' = turning the speed up and a couple of passes and it's nice and smooth. I saw something the other day about turning the lathe speed up if you're "riding air" - so I gave it a go to see what would happen and results were a lot better.

There are a couple of my tries in this thread ( I'm not going to post there anymore, clogging up the nice turnings).

 

[marcros]

I only have the one, homemade, and which is currently square with a slight radius to it. I bought a couple of replacement inserts, one of which was dead square. I really didn't like this square insert, so put a radius one back on. I can't remember whether it was a 4" radius or the 2". The square didn't have any clearance anywhere and seemed to catch more (maybe not in the true meaning of a woodturning catch). I wanted it for dead square cuts (particularly shoulders for tenons on mating parts and tenon sizing for threading of plastics) and facing off, but it wasn't to be.

I use it mainly for making square things round, and for some long grain spindle turning before finishing with a skew. if plunging in, I find that it works better to start at an end, and then only introduce half or so of the cutter to uncut timber. The slight radius works well for sweeping across, but I do also use a corner for doing so.

you seem to be getting a nice finish on the couple of bits that you have shown.

 

[Lazurus]

Mine have a dedicated carbide cutters runnig on a bearing.

www.toolpost.co.uk/product/hunter-hercu ... d-58-shaft