Thread: TCT Inserts

Originally Posted by robutacion

Hi everyone,

Those look mean hollowers Cliff, do they work well?....

Yup, they are a bit savage hand held, I'll do a thread on the tests that I did over the weekend when I catch up, I came home to 12 open jobs.

Maybe I need to go away for a couple of days more often.

Originally Posted by robutacion

Anyway, I have some info (news) on the inserts issue.

From the USA, PGS Tools, I was offered a one off deal of 40 inserts (10 of each of the 4 mentioned sizes) for the following prices:
12mm & 14mm - AU$7.50 each
15mm - AU$9.50 each
17mm - AU$10.00 each
Apparently, their inserts have a small radius. I believe I can put up to 4 inserts in a normal envelope for about $1.00 anywhere in Australia. ....

They are the ones I have ordered from.
I ordered 30 of the 15 x 15 x 2.5 & depending on when they hit my credit card, they will land at my place for about $10AUD each.

They shipped last Friday, I'll let everybody know when the land here.

Hi guys,

For those in the East Melbourne suburbs, check out the Wantirna Market. I picked these bad boys up for $2 each from one of two stalls selling them. He also had a number of TC wafers that did not make it onto router bits at the carbi-tool factory. They are used but will be reground anyway. I only saw one of those ring tips, or there would be more in the photo .

Hi Cliff,

I will do a couple of those hollowers one day (another project...!)
Yes, you are absolutely right about the place that I got the quote from, those were the first people we manage to get some info from, and as soon as the 15mm inserts become visible on their web site, was then when you made the order.
I was offer a freight discount for 4x4 = 40 inserts, which represent possibly in value, about CT to a $1 less.

I would like to close the order, and use the offered discount, but I don't have the financial means to pay over USD$300 all by my self. In reality, I was hoping that other forumates would jump at the opportunity to get a few each, as they did with you, but no one has gave any expression of interest as I require on my previous post. I should also remind everyone that the 40 inserts represents the 10 of each of the 4 most common used sizes (12 - 14 - 15 & 17 mm).

I would suggest that, if anyone wants to try these inserts, to let me know ASAP, so that I can put the money together for the order, before is too late.

Robomanic,
I wouldn't be too excited yet about those inserts, most of what you find around are for metal cutting, and modifying, re-shaping and re-sharping that type of material, unless you got all the proper equipment, it will be an absolute pain in the posterior. Have a go with them and lets us know the results, please!

Cheers
RBTCO

RBTCO
If your purchase of tips goes ahead I would be interested in say four of the 14mm size .
Ted

My TCT tips have arrived.

They are T10MG (grade) made in Germany

15x15x2.5mm with 30° angle from verticle (Actually what turners would call a 60°bevel)
It has a 6" radius so is very slightly domed.
The hole is a tad over 6mm & is counter sunk.

It will go on any of the tool holders that I already have including the Ci1.

I got 30 of them & they worked out at $10.20 each landed at my place.

They will pack flat on a piece of card & slip into a standard envelope to post anywhere in Aus for $0.55 & I reckon I could probly get away with 6 in a standard envelope.

26 spoken for already, that leaves just 4 for me, I should have ordered 40.

You could try 'Due to changes in the exchange rate, imported TCT bits have risen in price by 40%' ...

btw, not having a Rougher handle, can someone suggest the size of the platform one of Cliff's tips should sit on?

TIA

Hi everyone,

Cliff, PM sent.
I though that your 30 would be a good start, as I was going to order 40 (10x12,14,15,17mm) from the same supplier, to top up other interested people but I didn't have much member interest (appart from 1x4x14mm inserts). I have 2x12mm, 2x14mm from Frank, a box of 10x17mm coming from Leuco, and the 3x15mm from you so, I'm not going to invest money I don't have to order any more from the USA.

What I can do, if you want, is to pass on to you the offer I had for the purchase of the 40 inserts I've mention previously. If you have the money to invest, the deal is all yours (I will PM with details), you can then keep some more for you and sell the other ones, as you did with this lot, I'm ok with it!

rsser, if I understand you question correctly, the bar/shaft should be (at least) 2mm less narrow than the insert outer edge. I have not yet measure the base (bottom) of the 15mm inserts, but I reckon is about 12mm, because the insert thickness is 2.5mm. If the insert was 2mm, the base would be about 13mm. Now that Cliff has the inserts, he can easily measure and confirm the measurements.

Cheers
RBTCO

Originally Posted by rsser

btw, not having a Rougher handle, can someone suggest the size of the platform one of Cliff's tips should sit on?

TIA

They are about 13mm acros the flat on the bottom.
The Ci1 is made from a 1/2" square bar & the tip bed has a slight tilt back toward the handle.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

26 spoken for already, that leaves just 4 for me, I should have ordered 40.

I s'pose I'd better not put my hand up for... oh... say 4?

Interesting that you guys are going to carbide for turning. Turning wood that is. As said carbide tips are typically used for metals. They are used for stuff like PVC and Fiberglass also but typically for PVC at least they just use whatever is in the machine lots of coolant and get away with it.

It will be interesting to hear what you find out with these things. Something I can point out though is that typically the edge of a carbide tip has a radius on it. It isn't sharp! That's OK for steel and the high forces generated, turning wood is different. Your garden variety tip starts to work at half a mm depth of cut and .15 mm feed per rev. Usually they will go to around 5mm DOC and 1mm/rev. There are tools that will do much more than that as well. You can see the geometry is pretty well worked out. The Sanvik catalogue for tips and tools is 1200 pages. Half of that or more is tips. There are thousands of these jiggers. You might find that a "finishing" tip is better for you than a "roughing" tip as the finishing one will work at 0.1mm Depth of Cut.

For making bars see if you can get your hands on some 1040. It's a better grade of low carbon steel.

Studley

Yeah Studley, we have been over this but... there are now versions of TCT made for cutting timber too. Stick T10MG into a search engine & have a bit of a look at the results.
The grain size in the tip is different for the timber cutting ones & they are now sharp, well, sharper that the metal cutting tips.
They use them for saw tips to make the saw last longer & they now have them for planer heads as well.
I have found that they work fine for roughing out but then I go back to my HSS tools to finish the job.

They should be starting to turn up in your mail by now, I've had the first reported sighting from SA already.