Hi Steve. It is not so much the tool holder, but the inserts that are important. I have about a dozen toolholders. All are imported far eastern made & all seem to work just fine. This i cannot say about the inserts. Go cheap & that is what you get. I have plenty of cheap inserts , but they regularly need changing.

On the other hand i have a lot of Iscar inserts. These are made in Israel, they are superb but expensive. Hope this helps.

Steve.

I'm very happy with the smaller holders (and the excellent service) I receive from this company – I see they do 16mm ones as well..

JB Cutting Tools – Lathe Tool Holders

+1 for j b cutting tools and definitely Iscar or kennemetal tips.

I mostly use CCMT & GT as the cutters fit boring bars too and having the 100deg holders that you mention I get to use all 4 edges.

Also think about what you will be turning, do you really need a big 16mm shank which will almost certainly mean you need larger inserts and therefore cost plus they will get in the way when trying to turn work with tailstock support. For example I was turning a crankshaft last night and can only get down to 11mm with an 8mm shank tool and 06 inserts before the back of the holder hits the live ctr.

TNMG don’t seem to be any more expensive than most other inserts but you get six cutting tips at a useful angle.