Evening all.I,m going to get some bushes made up as the guy who rents one of our workshops is very good with metal but does not have a lathe tool to cut stainless.
Which one do i need to get for him….That is all… 😀

You can turn stainless (314 and 316) with HSS tooling, tungsten carbide insert tooling is easier but costlier too.

I take it you mean “reducers” rather than “bushes”? Wouldn’t want stainless bushes

Cheers dropoff.I,m sure he must have HSS as he makes quite a lot of stuff.But when i spoke to him on the phone he said he didn’t have the correct tool for it..I,ll speak to him again.. 🙂
Yer legend.Top hats bud…

303 is probably the easiest to machine. Not the most corrosion resistant but fine for most things. You wouldn’t need any special tooling for it. Plenty of cooling fluid though if you’re taking big cuts.

If you’ve just got some unknown bit of stainless bar, then your guess is a good as mine 🙂

Sounds like a good time to ditch top hats and go for a “heavy duty” type option

rob,

engineer-speak
‘i dont have the right tool for stainless’

means

‘i can’t be arsed to turn those bits for bugger all money’

As been said, your not talking about bushes, if you are you want something softer than the shaft.

I would us a tungsten carbide tip for any stainless, even just drilling through relatively thin ss. You can chew through hardend steel drills and lathe tools.

Lols at cheezo

HSS should be fine as long as he knows his way around a grinding wheel. Drilling it’ll be the pain in the arse.

303 & cobalt drills for the holes

cheez0,He makes loads of stuff for me for pennies.If he can’t be asred i,ll just put the rent up.Hahaha.
Thanks guys.All the info i need there..

I’d agree with cheez0 here, looks like a polite ditching.

HSS will be fine for drilling but a brazed tungsten carbide tipped tool will be better for turning. Will need a diamond lap grinder to sharpen it mind or at the very least a “green-grit (silicon carbide)wheel.
Tool would probably be a tenner or so.

Yes will go along with HSS drills but you must use coolant and lots of!
As for brazed carbide tipped tools, we are in the 21st century not the dark ages! 😉

Hi i’m a tooling engineer for Mitsubishi Carbide in the UK. Most of the advice above is correct. You can cut lower grades of stainless with high speed steel tooling although it will wear out quite quickly. If you are only prrducing a few parts it should be fine. If you have more to make sintered carbide inserts are the way to go. We have loads of different grades of insert depending on the exact grade of stainless. If you let me know what standard ISO turning tools your guy has I can send you a couple of samples FOC.

Cheers

Cheeky so & so! I realise we have moved on & I use inserted tipped tools myself but for a one- off job I assume it’s probably not worth the outlay.

So the time it takes to regrind your brazed tip every time you loose the edge is not costing time?
Which in reality has a cost!
Rough out with an old tip then change for new edge for finishing cut, as easy as that!
TPMR insert £3.50 approx

How many general or precision engineering workshops use brazed tip tools?…………. Not many I would say!

Q. For OP… What application do you need your bushes for?

Can’t argue with your logic in a production environment but perhaps I wrongly assumed the OP only wanted a couple of bushes made.

cheez0,He makes loads of stuff for me for pennies

.. i rest my case.

Did you consider this –

If you say he’s making things for pennies don’t you think it could now be costing him money to manufacture your
parts?

Machining usually costs in the region of £25/hr.

304 st/steel every time. Best alrounder going. Don’t need any special tools, in fact I find HSS drills go through it better than Ti-Nitride or cobalts. No special tools for turning either.

316 is VERY expensive compared to 304 and it’s a lot tougher (as opposed to harder, different property), so harder on tools. Oddly 314 is harder than both yet it’s a lower grade than 316.

For the -ve among you..The lad has been with us for years and we keep his rent really low.We even drop it for him when the work is slack.He,s a mechanic but is very good at all things metal.Anywho all sorted out now and he,s making up a few for both my full sussers.Obviously i pay for the materials and tools.
cheez0 ..bren2709 ..Not all people are out to take you…..

bren2709 – Member

Machining usually costs in the region of £25/hr.

T’was a lot more at my old gaff…

Rob – glad your sorted!

Sbob – hourly rate all depends on the application, as stated the £25/hr was a rough guide for manual machining.

Stumpyjag- We did an open house for HAAS and mitsubishi tools a few years ago. Some the best tools we have, the ali masters are good along with the 2 tip side and face tool we got.

Remember some stainless is great to machine (304?) some terrible (316).

bigdean- where do you work? We do have lots of very good high end tooling!!