mmayo
Member
12 Roadster /Saturns
12 Sierras
1 Razor
Lots of wood pens moving lately so time to get to work. Holiday craft show within Souza Winery this weekend. Now for finishing.
Many pardons, I am under the gun and had the blanks drilled, tubes glued up and flushed up in advance. The pens are finished and ready for tags. My trusty small carbide with a 2" radius was slightly squirrelly for some reason today. I will change the chip, screw and clean it well. The Magic Bob tool with a 2" radius continues to be my choice for 90% of these pen tubes. I like a smaller cutter when I get close to the bushings.
I tell people honestly that one simple pen start to finish would take three hours. Only through the economy of doing many at once does the time reduce.
By the way, shop start time today was 4 am... Kind of a weird retirement, but my choice.
Many pardons, I am under the gun and had the blanks drilled, tubes glued up and flushed up in advance. The pens are finished and ready for tags. My trusty small carbide with a 2" radius was slightly squirrelly for some reason today. I will change the chip, screw and clean it well. The Magic Bob tool with a 2" radius continues to be my choice for 90% of these pen tubes. I like a smaller cutter when I get close to the bushings.
I tell people honestly that one simple pen start to finish would take three hours. Only through the economy of doing many at once does the time reduce.
By the way, shop start time today was 4 am... Kind of a weird retirement, but my choice.
By the way, at first I thought I had wasted $100 for the tool, I no longer feel that way. I bought five replacement cutters from AZ Carbide to keep me turning.
Hopco--had the pleasure of driving up to your location last Saturday. Gentleman sold me a metal detector & I drove up to Ardmore to pick it up.
I have to work in my garage and as it has been stated, it is getting to cold to go out early in the morning. I am thinking about getting one of those oil filled radiator style heaters to help take the bite off. Then I can get into the garage more often. Just have to make sure to keep it dusted off.
Actually, I just bought a pack of 10 carbide cutters from Global.
I spent $1.73 per carbide bit, plus some for shipping ... ended up being around $2.60 per bit all told.
I got the 10-pack of 14mm x 14mm square cutters with .5mm radius edges (no sharp corner). It doesn't have the 2" radius edges, but I think I can work with these quite nicely. I do have to build a new tool holder, as they don't fit the holder I currently have, but that's just a minor issue. I can get some mild steel square barstock, grind down the edge I'll need, and drill/tap the hole for a machine screw. Making the rest of the handle will be easy ... I have a lathe!
Actually, I just bought a pack of 10 carbide cutters from Global.
I spent $1.73 per carbide bit, plus some for shipping ... ended up being around $2.60 per bit all told.
I got the 10-pack of 14mm x 14mm square cutters with .5mm radius edges (no sharp corner). It doesn't have the 2" radius edges, but I think I can work with these quite nicely. I do have to build a new tool holder, as they don't fit the holder I currently have, but that's just a minor issue. I can get some mild steel square barstock, grind down the edge I'll need, and drill/tap the hole for a machine screw. Making the rest of the handle will be easy ... I have a lathe!
Got an email request for a link to Global Tooling's site.
Carbide Insert Knives
The ones I bought are 3rd down from the top at $1.73 apiece.
Well, as I said, I need to make a bit holder for them.
They are very square-ish, with just a tiny radius off the very tips of the corners. I expect that they will be excellent for roughing and giving me a clean level surface in preparation for drilling or finishing operations.
They are thicker by a little bit, compared to the carbide bits available from PSI, and seem to be quite sharp right out of the box ... Speaking of which, it's a nice small compact container, made to dispense the carbide bits one at a time, and it holds them apart from each other to avoid any damage during shipping.
You are restricted to buying a package of 10 at a time ... I expect these will last me a lifetime of use, especially if I go to the trouble of re-sharpening them at decent intervals.
The center hole is a size or two larger than the ones used by PSI's Ultra Carbide cutter bits, and the bit itself is larger, so it doesn't fit on the carrier properly without modification to the cutter carrier.
I plan to continue using the Ultra Carbide handle and 2 inch radius bit for most of my detail work, and the new bits for the roughing in work.
The Global Tools bits are 90 degree squared edges, and only the half millimeter at each corner gets rounded over.
Never tried the AZ Carbide stuff.