Source for trangular carbide inserts.

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Making a ball turning attachment for my ML10. I intend to use TCMT1100304 inserts. Looking at prices, there seems to be a price range of £5 to £10 followed by a range from £20 upwards. I shall be machining acrylic to begin with followed by mild steel later. For the few carbide inserts that I have, Arc Euro have supplied their own brand. These have been good, but they don’t do triangular inserts.

So can anyone recommend a supplier? Some of the dirt cheap ones may be OK for acrylic, but for steel?

Andrew.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I bought my last box of triangular cutters from Amazon, about £20 for a box of ten. They are the polished type for Aluminium and plastics and have worked very well on both my turning and milling tools.
Like some others I used a lozenge shape insert on my ball turning tool for my MW lathe as it seems to give better clearance. It works well enough.
For my wood turning jig I used RCGT06 cutters and they also work well when cutting wood.

Edit: They were TNMG1604 inserts and cost £22.46 for ten.

[VicParticipant @vic]

These are on offer at the moment if the type is any good to you?

https://www.shop-apt.co.uk/carbide-inserts-for-turning-apt/TCMT110204FGCM20.html

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Worth asking JB Cutting Tools

https://jbcuttingtools.com/

They don’t show them on the website but I’ve found they often have other stuff and are very helpful.  Worth a call.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Why not, if you haven’t cut too much metal) change the design to use a square insert? In that way, you could have four corners available for cutting, rather than three.

(The Repton Radius Turning Tool , uses 55 degree inserts, so only two are useable)

Howard

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

I’ve bought several packs of inserts from “Carbide Direct” who run an Ebay store. Pleased with the purchases. They’re currently offering a TCMT1100 pack for £10.95 inc. postage.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

For plastics I would go with the polished inserts intended for aluminium and non ferrious. They will also work on the steel.

 

So look for TCGT Apt do them in twos

 

Square don’t work well on ball turners, even triangles start to have too much of the side engaged. DCGT with their more pointed corners will give you a smaller diameter “stick on your lollipop”

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