Carbide Turning Tools
During completion of my first project it became very clear to
me that the High Speed Steel (HSS) turning tools were not going to work. To my
great surprise what happened was the turning tools got noticably duller as I
worked on the project, and this, in turn, caused increasing difficulty in
finishing the piece. I found I had to use much greater force (rather a lot,
actually) to get the tools to remove wood, and the size of the removed chips got
increasingly smaller to the point where the tools were basically making sawdust.
This was not good, so I immediately started researching carbide tipped tuning
tools. I was aware of the general nature of carbide cutters from previous
aerospace industry experience. In essence, carbide cutters are the hardest,
sharpest, and most durable cutters available other than diamonds, and they are
typically used to fabricate metal. Clearly such cutters would work well for
wood.
The world of carbide cutting tools is in a totally different universe from wood
turning, and I quickly discovered there are only a few kinds of carbide cutters
available for use in wood turning. Moreover, the carbide tipped turning tools I
found were about $130 each, and this seemed pretty expensive. I did finally
discover a company that sold what appeared to be excellent quality tools for
about half the usual price:
Harrison Specialties. This company sells a peculiar set of products, but
their
Lathe Accessories page lists an excellent selection of carbide-tipped wood
turning tools.
I found the videos on the Harrison site pretty convincing. So I ordered their
Carbide wood turning & hollowing tool with 16mm (5/8") handle and an
extra cutter head just to be safe. You can check out the photos & videos of
these items on the Harrison pages, but here are a couple of photos I took
myself:
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This is one of the HSS tools and the carbide tool. The quarter in the middle is for size comparison. You can clearly see the carbide tool is much longer - as Harrison describes it is a solid stainless steel shaft with a rubber golf club handle and a specially formed end that holds the actual carbide cutter. |
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This is a close-up of the business ends of both tools. The HSS tool at top us basically U shaped (it is a small gouge tool) with an angled end that performs the cutting. The groove in the U shape helps with chip removal. The carbide tool is shaped totally differently: it is essentially a tapered shaft on which the carbide cutter sits. |
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This shows the shape of the carbide cutter and the end of the shaft that holds it. There is a small set screw in the center that can be loosened to rotate the cutter (if it ever gets dull) or removed to change cutters. The cutting edge of the cutter is surprisingly sharp and, needless to say, works much better than the HSS tool. Plus, as noted on the Harrison site, it does not get dull |
