Has anyone tried making their own carbide tiped tools?

[Kenton Keller]

Complete newbie to turning, but have done some work on metal lathes. The carbide tools intrigue me but being a newbie the cost keep me from even considering them. But I was wondering if anyone has tried using say a cheap HF tool, grinding the end appropriately and drilling and tapping it to accept a carbide tip.

Also I see the wood working tips seem to get a premium. Has anyone tried tips for Metal?

[James Combs]

Complete newbie to turning, but have done some work on metal lathes. The carbide tools intrigue me but being a newbie the cost keep me from even considering them. But I was wondering if anyone has tried using say a cheap HF tool, grinding the end appropriately and drilling and tapping it to accept a carbide tip.

Also I see the wood working tips seem to get a premium. Has anyone tried tips for Metal?
Welcome aboard the vortex Kenton. You will find a great group of turners here and all will be glade to help you with questions. As for "Has anyone tried making their own carbide tiped tools?", yes there are many DIYers here and I happen to be one of them. Here is one I made just over a year ago (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?225982-Another-Shop-Made-Carbide-Tool), use it pretty much every time I turn. I use it for both finishing and roughing. The bit has a radius cutting edge which makes it a great finishing scraper but since is is "almost" square it make an excellent roughing tool. You can get the construction details from the posting.

Keep us posted on how you are doing and we love pictures.

[Brice Rogers]

About 2/3rds of my tools are home made. Some carbide, some high-carbon hard steel.

Convert HF handles and shanks to carbide? You bet - - it's very easy. For tapping, just don't buy the HF taps because they are (IMHO) very poor.

Cost of carbide? Check AZ carbide and Eddie Castelin (google them). Both are reasonable. One of my favorite tools is a square carbide scraper. I bought the carbide on ebay - - 10 for $40. The carbide was supposed to be used on a rotary planer that uses about 50 of them.

Most of my carbide tools are mounted on either round or square 1/2" shafts that are epoxied into my own handles with a copper ferrule. I buy the square shaft from the steel yard for about $ 0.60 a foot.

[Brice Rogers]

Part 2:
I've also made 3 or 4 tool tips out of an old high carbon file. I first took out the hardness, shaped it, re-hardened it, annealed it (to remove the brittleness). They work okay, but probably not as good as M2 or alloyed tool steel.

You can also use tool steel blanks (e.g., old planer blades) to make tools.

Take a look at Captain Eddie Castelin's videos on making your own carbide tools. It will inspire you to step deeper into the tool "vortex" ;)

[Doug Rasmussen]

My turning tools with carbide tips use inserts that literally peel the shavings off. The inserts used are called "high positive". The same type inserts are used on metal lathes for turning aluminum, other soft metals and plastics. These inserts typically run from $10 to $20, less on eBay where they show up once in awhile. Holders specifically made to hold various shapes of high positive inserts are available from Shars tool, the holder could be welded to a long shaft and handle.

My turning is done on automatic lathes so these type inserts are ideal.

The picture shows one shape of insert. The cutting edges are razor sharp. The other picture shows the shavings coming off the inserts

[ron david]

Complete newbie to turning, but have done some work on metal lathes. The carbide tools intrigue me but being a newbie the cost keep me from even considering them. But I was wondering if anyone has tried using say a cheap HF tool, grinding the end appropriately and drilling and tapping it to accept a carbide tip.

Also I see the wood working tips seem to get a premium. Has anyone tried tips for Metal?
Just use your old throw away bits and silver solder them onto 1/2" square stock and make a handle. just grind back into the end of the sq. stock tho make a seat for it. hammer a little piece of silver solder flat , flux things up, set the tip on top of the silver solder on top. apply heat and hold the carbide down with an old screwdriver to seat it in the ss and hold until it sets. originally made hollow turn tools that way. Lindquist/Ellsworth tools of the early 80's
one can also use hs drill bits and hs squares along with the carbide tipped 1/8 - 1/4(larger if you want) and make a holder out of round stk and a small set screw and put a handle on the other end. lots of ways of making your own with little dollars.
been doing it that was for 35 years
ron

[Scott T Smith]

I too have made my own carbide tipped turning tools. The easiest approach is what Brice recommended; start with 1/2" square stock. In my case, I used spare carbide inserts from one of my spiral cutterhead machines so I don't have to source different pieces.

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