Curious if there is a shape to a tool that works better than others when turning plastics on a metal lathe?
Curious if there is a shape to a tool that works better than others when turning plastics on a metal lathe?
"If the women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy" -Red Green
I use carbide insert tooling on everything, and those certainly work fine. On normal tooling, sharper edges and good chip relief should be all you need.
ULS 135 watt w/rotary, Mazak QT-6T CNC lathe, Dapra machining center, Sherline CNC, Tormach CNC, Acad, Rofin welding laser, YAG laser w/ rotary, 4500 watt Fiber laser
Boone Titanium Rings
As Bruce points out carbide works on plastics just fine but in my experience freshly sharpened HSS tools do the finest job and wear well too.
If you are using UHMW well nothing will cout it nicely! Acetal/Delrin turns very well.
My experience is the oppsite..
On small lathes with less than 3 HP I find HSS works 10x better unless your cutting something extra hard
I worked at a place called ChemPlast now owned by Norton
You want a tool with a 1/16"+ raidus and very high top angle like 25º and side angles of about 15º
We ran the tools upside down to throw chips in to the pan..
On last passes you want to start cut very slow and stop cut to get a hold to the end of the chip and then start machine and pull the chip off the whole lenght as if chips wraps around work it may damage finish..
PS stone tool to a polish..
Let me use the correct terms open this pdf
http://www.metalartspress.com/PDFs/S...athe_Tools.pdf
Side and Back Rake 25º
Front Cutting Angle 25º
Side Clearance Angle 15º
Last edited by Johnny Kleso; 06-07-2011 at 12:03 AM.
aka rarebear - Hand Planes 101 - RexMill - The Resource