When facing off pipe I always work from the centre outwards, then the burr is easily removed with a file.

Greensands, can you post a link to one or two of the videos you mention showing this? Would be real interested to watch. I find the videos of lathework etc coming out of India, Pakistan and Indonesia, Vietnam etc fascinating because of little snippets like this.

It may be that on a lathe with loose headstock bearings, cutting outward from the centre reduces chatter because the cutting forces are pushing the job away from the tool, not pushing it towards the tool and causing dig-ins/chatter. I will have to try it next time in the shed. (Noting Jason's wise proviso about indexable tips and the need for a centre hole, or use HSS.)

They do seem to do some amazing stuff in some of those videos, once you get past the lack of WHS by our standards and focus on the job in hand. One thing I have noticed though is that 3 foot of pipe on the chuck key seems to be universal standard operating procedure.

Depending on the lathe, etc, one disadvantage might be the possibility of damaging the cross feed drive…..

Edited By not done it yet on 03/02/2023 12:27:33

Like Jason, from time to time I use a Boring Bar, fed outwards from a central hole or centre deilling, to produce a flat bottom recess.

Howard

I've just remembered another reason you might want to face from center outwards~

This may be a small lathe chuck problem rather than a large lathe chuck problem.

I was facing an irregular shape in the 4 jaw, roughly round in center, going out to two long slim 'arms' so a rather interrupted cut.

Facing from outside to center the item kept being knocked out of true as i started the pass.

I got quite frustrated. Then

Working from center to edge cured the problem.

I would feel that the type of tooling being used is a consideration as most HSS have rakes ground such that they essentially cut primarily leftwards or right! Inserts are a different matter as they will be unidirectional.

Samuel's observation about irregular pieces being knocked out of true makes me wonder if either the mounting was inadequate or the initial cuts were too heavy (or a combination), as I can't see any difference between the direction of cut causing the issue – even when working centre outwards you will still experience the same irregular parts that cause vibration etc

I often cut in both directions, but as I use HSS a lot, the outward cut is usually very light, more a case of feeling I am doing something useful whizzing the feed handle around rather than just winding it back!

From all the replies to date, I still don't see a convincing case that it might always be better 'outward'

regards Mike

Just checked my Warco 290V, when the carriage feed is toward the chuck the cross feed is towards the center. I personally don't think it makes a jot of difference either way, I tend to face inwards and then come out on the same setting, a sort of spring cut I suppose you could call it.

Tony