Thread: HSS bit profile for boring head?

I want to use my boring head with a HSS bit for boring. What type of tool bit grind is best?
Should I grind a general right hand roughing profile, or maybe a basic round nose or maybe a knife-edge profile or maybe a screw cutting profile?
What do members recommend?

Sincerely,
Tom

Depending on what you are boring and the type of opperation and finish you want grind it the same as you would if you were doing the job in the lathe.

Makes sense. I might grind the bit and turn in the lathe and see how it performs. I wonder if boring requires special considerations. I will start with some free machining aluminum.

The only thing to be aware of is the ridgidity, when using the boring head as you may find the bar will be much further away from support compared to when held in the lathe tool post.

A couple of things to look out for:

If the bore diameter is small relative to the HSS tool size, you may need to round off the back part of the ground tool so that it doesn't hit the bore behind where the cut is taking place.

Depending on how much stick out you have from the boring head, a large nose radius on the cutting edge may produce chatter. I always use a fine radius on boring head tools, use low feed rate, and take my time with the cut.

Plasticine is great for killing chatter. Even a small amount wrapped around the bar can provide enough damping to kill a resonance.

Graham.

Tom,

When I fly cut the bases of a couple of hand shaper tables for Bob L and myself I used an Ausee fly cutter with its as supplied piece of ground HSS . Basically the same ground reliefs as a lathe tool. Worked well on the sand cast cast iron. No real reason why it wouldn't perform just as well in a bore.

https://www.ausee.com.au/shop/category.aspx?catid=8361

Bob.

Thanks Bob, I'll get some HSS bits and experiment. Excellent response.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O9d_I0A4kzg

Plasticine is great for killing chatter. Even a small amount wrapped around the bar can provide enough damping to kill a resonance.

Now the niece/nephew really will have to watch their stash when they pop in!!

Interesting idea.