Need advice on making my own tools

[jthompson1995]

Can anyone lend some experience in what kind of tools bits/drill rod I should get to make my own turning/hollowing tools?

I have an old stainless steel tool handle (don't know from what, I found it in the garage whane I bought the house) that will accept 5/16" round rod. I plan on drilling and tapping two holes for set screws to hold interchangeable tool bits in it. The handle is only about 5" long and will hold up to 2" of the bit in the handle. I would only be using it to hollow small pieces (ornaments, small hollow forms, etc.)

My problem is I know nothing about hardening or heat treating steel. I have found lots of places carrying drill rod and HSS tool bits that will fit but they talk about air, oil and water hardening and it's got me baffled.

Can any of these be used for making turning tools without having to heat treat/harden them? Is it possible, and if so what's the best way, to bend the rod to create useable hollowing tools?

Thanks in advance for any information you can lend.

 

[JeffinWIS]

maybe this will help..... http://aroundthewoods.com/hooktool.shtml

 

[holmqer]

There are also some decent articles on making your own turning tools here

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_articles.html

 

[jthompson1995]

Thanks for the links, they helped a lot. One question I still have, though. Can you bend HSS and, if so, do you bend it cold or heat it and bend it? Thanks again.

 

[KenV]

I am a bit confused about where you are headed. There are a family of tools that are used for hollowing that use high speed steel lathe bits for the cutting. These share in the use of common steel shank shafts that mount the tool bits. These are available from folks like Don Pencil, Lamar Sherill, John Jordan, Bob Rosand. Don Pencil uses small (1/8th inch as I remember) round lathe bits, John Jordan and Lamar use 3/16 square bits. These three have the bits set into a mild steel shank with set screws and the mild steel shank fits into a tool handle. Bob Rosand (rrosand.com) sells one that is silver soldered onto a mild steel shank. He has a reprint from the AAW mag on his web site if you want to make your own. The lathe tool bits come in several grades from high speed steel to cobalt alloys and cost from $0.50 to a couple bucks each. Don Pencil and John Jordan sell jigs for sharpening the bits for the systems they sell.

There are a family of scrapers/cutters based on mounting a small piece of high speed steel or a carbide insert onto a flat notch in a chunk of mild steel that mounts into a handle. Hunter, "the eliminator" by Jack McDaniels, Unique Tool Works, and others sell these. You can roll your own also. Replacement carbide or carbide treated inserts run for a couple bucks to about $25 and some can be resharpened by a tool and die grinder.

Then there are the highspeed steel tools - Sorby and others sell these.

Last there are the high carbon steel tools (drill rod is high carbon steel). These are fairly easy to make, but tend to lose an edge mutch faster than high speed steel and heat of cutting (especially dry wood) can pull the temper. Tempering high carbon steel is at about 400 degrees F and for high speed steel at about 1100 degrees F. (That is why you can silver solder a high speed steel bit to a mild steel shank and not lose the ability to hold an edge).

Heat treated high speed steel does not bend or shape easily; and the heat treatmetn is not in the home garage capability of most. Annealed high carbon steel is easily bent and is within the capability of the home garage to heat treat; but does not provide a long lasting cutting edge.

So back to the first question --- where are you headed and what do you want to do?

 

[jimwill48]

My Version of Oland Tool

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Well got busy this weekend and built my version of the Oland Style Tool.

Shaft is 14" - of L12 Steel .625 in dia.
Handle is Maple 1 1/2" with a 1" - copper ferrul and is 12" long.
Tool Bit is a 1/4" by 2 1/2" HSS
Shaft is held by 2 - 10-32NF Grub Screws

Was only able to use it to turn a little piece of trash pine (chuck of 2x4)
and at least for spindle turning it works great. Can't wait to try it for hollowing both a bowl and end grain. Any who see the pics:

 

[rogerpjr]

If you want to make the entire tool as one piece, get some O-1 tool steel. You can get it from most suppliers in many sizes and shapes. I got some recently from Online Metals. O-1 is easy to heat treat and pretty forgiving about temperature range. You can heat it with any oxy-acetylene torch or even a MAPP gas torch from Home Depot. Unless you are working with a small cross section and length, I wouldn't try it with a standard propane torch. Just heat the finished piece to a orange to yellow color (best to do this in subdued light so you can see the color) and then plunge the piece into a can of light oil. I use 10 weight, but most any will work. Gently swirl the piece in the oil for a minute or two. DO THIS OUTSIDE WHERE YOU WON"T START A FIRE AND HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER NEARBY JUST IN CASE. The oil frequently catches fire, but goes out quickly. Now you have the piece hardened. To temper it, wipe off the piece and polish it up slightly so it is bright so you can see colors change. Then heat it up again slowly and watch for it to turn a lt straw color and quench again. There are more precise ways to do this, but you will get satisfactory results with this method.

If you want to make a tool with changeable bits, just use mild steel for the shaft and buy HSS steel tool bit blanks from places like ENCO, MSC, or Grizzly. 3/16" or 1/4" round ones work fine. You just drill a hole the same diameter as the bit you have in the steel rod for the bit and another one or two at right angles to the proper diameter for tapping threads for set screw(s) to hold the bit tight. You can angle the hole any way you want or drill straight into the end of your rod. Grind the bit any shape you need. If you want to use squre bits, you'll have to file the corners into the round hole with a needle file.

If you want to bend the rod to form a curve or such for hollowing, it is best done with the bend area heated at least to bright red. Propane will do this okay. Just clamp in a vise and hit with a hammer or bend it over another piece of steel. Since I do blacksmithing work as a hobby, I use an anvil for bending but usually end up heating one or two pieces with the torch rather than firing up the forge for such a small job.