Indexable tooling

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

Nah,

These are generics.

If you want branded tooling expect to pay 5 to 10 times as much from Sandvik and the like. You can build up your collection by purchasing individual tools from suppliers like APT or ARC etc. They provide the better quality tools so you will pay more accordingly.

[Neil LickfoldParticipant @neillickfold44316]

The GT inserts are a ground outer profile insert. Like an insert for cutting aliminium or copper for instance. Then there are coated GT inserts, these are for stainless steels and Titanium for example. They also work very well on most steels as well for the home hobby lathe. The positive geometry sharp edge inserts (an edge radius of less than 0.02mm, essentially sharp) use less power for the same depth of cut and feed rate. A lot of the pressed inserts, have a dull cutting edge(R0.1 to R0.15), are intended to work differently they. They require the correct speed in general, as they rely on  the plasticising of the material being cut, with the heat going out into the chips or swarf. They will string if the cut depth is insufficient to create a curled chip.

I use inserts that are generally the industry standard sizes. Mainly due to them being cheaper than  the odd sized inserts, and are more likely to be locally stocked by a tool supplier. They also have the greatest range of grades and cutting geometry chip breakers made into the inserts.

For Brass, I like using the Ceramic inserts. Just need to be very careful when approaching the centre of an end face. Being a negative rake angle edge they cut very well and stay sharp for  a very long time .

Some QCTP have holders that will take a 10mm shank tool which works very well in the ML7 lathes.  There are some 8mm shank tools available too, and from the USA is 3/8 shank tool holders.

The DCMT inserts are positive geometry and only have 2 cutting edges. They do have a very big selection though(DCMT11T30X), and there are also bore bars that take the DCMT inserts as well. The smaller DCMT0702X inserts, have 10mm shank holders and work in some of the bore bar ranges.

Common bore bare inserts are the Triangular like the TNMG a negative insert that have positive geometry options, especially in the larger TNMG16 size, which will give 6 cutting edges. So can be used for external turning as well. But the holder will need to the cut on the bottom side to fit a ML7.

The small mentioned cc inserts are great and can be used in bore bars and external holders. So reduces the number of inserts needed for the home shop.

Be careful in buying the small triangular inserts . Some are intended for boring bars only, and do not fit the external holders. Make sure that the inserts are correct for the bar or tool holder. For example, I have a boring bar, and the inserts are too thin. They were cheap though and I didn’t notice that they were the thinner older version inserts. So had to make a 0.8mm shim to use them.  Some are an unusual size as well, so just pays to check.

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