Buying mill/lathe tools.

[Frak]

Once you obtain a Mill or lathe the cost of tooling can be very expensive. For a second time I have delt with a company in Hong Kong called CTCtools, they are absolutely fantastic to deal with, on both occasions I ordered the parts and they arrived 5 days later!!!!

Customer service is excellent, with follow up emails etc, even though in the grand sceme of things I am only buying small monetary amounts off them.

The quality of the tooling is also excellent, I had a friend look at the stuff, he's a fitter and turner with probably about 35years in the trade, he said it was all good stuff. The price is about a quarter what you'd pay here for equivalent stuff. I highly recommend them and will be getting all susequent tooling from them.

pic of ER32 collet chuck and collet set.

[Tim.duncan]

noted. hope fully one day i will have a reason to buy lathe/mill tools

[Sam-Q]

I also have dealt extensively with C2C tools, I have so far bought the following:

MT2 to ER32 collet holder
MT3 to ER32 collet holder
R8 to ER32 collet holder
Int30 to ER32 collet holder
ER32 collet set
Digital edge finder

with a friend also buying these:

MT4 to ER40 collet holder
er40 collet set
digital edge finder
release spanner

excellent to deal with, the only minor thing you need to watch out for is that you get the collet release tool with the collet holder as sometimes it's separate. The digital edge finder is a life saver.

Another tool store worth knowing is Smith and arrow on ebay. They sell abrassives such as slitting disks which I just purchased a pack of 100. The slitting disks are unusually tough, I normally twist disks more than I should during the diff conversions I do and these just don't seem to readily break. I am just about to try their 350mm drop saw blades, sanding disks, flapper wheels and a sanding backing pad

[Frak]

Thanks for that Sam. I think a digital edge finder may be on my list

[Sam-Q]

I dont know how you can go without it, its cheap and easy. Get the one with the light though.

Sadly there are not that many machinists on this forum

[corknose]

i am i just use a mechanical edge finder would be cool too get a electric one how much?

[Sam-Q]

you will never want to go back

[Frak]

Thanks, just ordered one and a few other bits and pieces

[Tim.duncan]

i wouldent say i was a machinists as im only a maintenance fitter but i try and get out on the lathe every now and then. im hopefully booking in to do a night time tafe course on advanced machining at the start of next year. i have looked into getting my own mill but the i just dont have the funds...or the room at the moment

[Sam-Q]

oh I mean a machinist in the practical sense not officially as a job title, I until a little while ago was an electrician and I love machining. In due time when my monster mill is running I want to put a 2 or 3 axis dro on it and then buy a rotating table with a bolt on 3 jaw chuck. This is what I have been preparing to machine up on the tafe machines I have access to:



I highly suggest the tafe course, it's where I learn't everything. Whats your location?

I understand all too well the funding issue, it's taken me a while to get where I am now but I have quite a bit to go. The DRO will cost me about $1000 and I would be happy if I managed to run three phase to my workshop for less than double that. The other problem is the cheap mills that are made in China are really pathetic, like completely embarrassingly bad. Infact all of the models in Hare and forbes seem to be shody, even the huge ones from the reports I have heard and what I have seen myself.

Frak: let me know how that works out, so if you don't mind me asking what else did you get?

Another suggestion is this kit:





It's a parallel set that has pairs of each size in steps from short as onwards. Because they are fairly narrow it's almost always possible to have 2 of these in a vice on each side under a piece of work so it's well supported. I have this set myself and their really neat to use.