hello, I have a Chinese made Hafco AL50G lathe, very much the same as many marketed under different brands.
I am not a machinist, my passion is restoring classic and vintage motorcycles. So I do not have the experience or training but am learning slowly to be at least passable at simple turning tasks to make spacers, shafts and components that are not available at your local shops!
My question is this: as I don't have the skills or time/inclination to grind my own tools, I have decided to invest in indexable tool holders with replaceable carbide inserts. For general all round use at a reasonable price/reasonable quality any recommendations? I am not looking for the cheapest, but one that will do most jobs, work well with my fairly small lathe. I have been looking on the net and am deluged by all the different letter codes and styles in the more specialist sites which just assume you have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the acronyms and on the other end of scale cheap as chips ebay sellers give no pertinent info whatsoever.
This is what I have gleaned so far:
Shank height 1/4 (6mm) 5/16(8mm) is ideal, or at max 3/8(10mm) at a pinch
CCMT (diamond shape) or TCMT (triangle shape) inserts with a medium tip radius around .4mm.
So any advice gratefully received on the above, brand , source, price or other relevant positive/negative experiences.
generally to machine mild steel, aluminium, stainless steel and occasionally brass.
Also any thoughts on a suitable quick change tool post (QCTP, see I know that acronym!) to suit.
Thanks
Johnny, Perth, West Australia


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