Thread: Quick change tool post, advice please

Originally Posted by SixtyTen

The stuff from machinery house is literally the same chinese stuff you get on Ebay and Ali, down to the same packaging and everything. machinery house just charges 10x as much. Im all for supporting local business, but I wont be bent over like that.

I had a 200 series on my AL320G (320mm swing) and it was the perfect fit. I ended up with about 20 tool holders over the years. Probably actually needed about 12-14, but 6 or 7 would get you well on the way.

Make a nice rack for them that mounts on the back of the splash guard of the lathe, and make it so you can see the tool tip so you know what your picking up.

I bought a bunch of holders from ToolsNZ, prices are much better than machinery house and the shipping time is much less than ebay or ali.

I would highly recommend getting cheap carbide holders and inserts. You will get much much better results than HSS, as you probably cant grind a half decent tool (no offence) HSS has its place, but 90% of my work is done with carbide. For inserts, the Deskar brand is pretty good. Kyocera is almost as good as some of the american stuff. More expensive than Deskar, but significantly less than USA made or European brands.

Once you have spent some time with decent cutting tools, then you will know what a tool sounds and looks like when it is cutting well and can experiment with grinding HSS tools until they perform well. Not all HSS is equal. Stay well away from anything unbranded. Evercut and Assab are the two most available good brands in NZ.

Thats some good advice mate, I have a bunch of HSS and carbide already.
Ill have a go at grinding as I want to learn, and Ive already got a lot of experience grinding chisels and plane blades etc. But thanks for the advice!
SO.... are you telling me you have a surplus of tool holders and need to sell them???