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Old 07-01-2008, 08:11 AM   #8
MPWR
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Re: Are smaller lathe cutting tools available?

Welcome, Dan! Glad to hear you're finding the forum to be useful. The more you ask, the more help we can be.

Using a lathe as a precision grinder is a clever idea but for one thing- you wind up with alot of grit on your lathe, which can quickly and completely destroy it. The abrasive dust worn from the grinding wheel can get into the slides and leadscrews, and that's bad, bad news. If you ever do this kind of grinding on your lathe, cover everything (everything!) with aluminum foil to protect your components, and be very careful unwrapping afterwards.

The clever machinist makes a precision toolpost for grinding lathe bits on his bench grinder. Design it to move in X and Y with leadscrews (1/4 x 20 are the same screws on my tooling), and to hold a bit at any angle relative to the grinder wheel that you need. When the parts wear out, remake them.

Quote:
I've been turning the tool post to adjust the angle of the tool to the work. Is this bad practice?
No problem at all.

And if you don't have a tool post that will hold a bit the way you need it, make one that will!
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