DIY Carbide Lathe Tools for Cheap

Intro: DIY Carbide Lathe Tools for Cheap

I recently got into wood turning, and I wanted to have a nice set of tools. Most lathe gouges and chisels are high speed steel (HSS), but they require constant sharpening and leave something to be desired. The premium wood turning tools use replaceable carbide inserts that stay sharp considerably longer, but you also pay a premium for them.

Instead of paying around $100 per tool, I set out to make my own. After it's all said and done, I've got $53 dollars invested in two carbide cutting tools, and I've got 6 regular steel chisels and gouges left from the materials that I bought for the project.

Not too shabby - here's how it's done!

STEP 1: Gather the Materials

I've seen some Instructables where people turned their own hardwood handles, used copper plumbing to make custom ferrules, cut or machined their own tool shafts, and even hollowed out the handles and loaded them with shot to reduce vibration. While I will probably do this eventually, I wanted more instant gratification. I wanted a set of carbide cutters to use between now and then. So... I decided to just use a cheap set of donor chisels as the handles for my own carbide lathe tools.

I bought a set of 8 lathe tools from Harbor Freight for $20. I also purchased a pair of carbide inserts from Easy Wood Tools on Amazon. I decided on the Ci0 round cutter and the Ci1-R2 radiused square cutter. Both carbide inserts came with their own 8-32 hold down screws.

If you're following this guide verbatim, here are the links to exactly what I bought:

http://www.harborfreight.com/wood-lathe-turning-to...

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0039ZYQLW/

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A00J6M/

You'll also need:

A tap and die set, specifically an 8-32 tap.

A scratch awl.

A center punch.

A drill and bits. Something to pilot drill with, and a 1/8" bit. (#29 if you have it)

A combination square.

Something to protect bare metal. I have Johnson's Paste Wax, so I used that.

STEP 2: Layout Your Work

I set out all of my tools and the inserts to test fit which tool would hold each insert the best. I decided to use the 1/2" round tool to support the square cutter, and the spear point tool to mount the round cutter.

Hold the parts together, and inspect how they line up, front and back. You want the carbide insert to be centered on the width of the chisel shaft, and you want the insert to extend beyond the cutting edge of the original tool but still have enough material left over to tap threads through the full thickness of the chisel.

Once you've got it lined up the way that you want it, use the inside of the carbide insert as a guide and scratch a circle into the steel tool shaft.

***Be aware that the carbide inserts are razor sharp! You must use care when handling them so that you don't cut yourself. Wearing heavy gloves is a good idea.

STEP 3: Find the Center

Now that you've got a rough idea of where you'd like to locate the carbide inserts on each tool, it's time to mark the exact locations for drilling.

Using a combination square, scratch a center line down each tool. Set the square to be a little shy of center, and scratch a line down each side. Adjust your square if you need to, and draw another set of lines, until you find the exact center line along each piece of steel.

Using the same square, scratch a line through the center of your circle that's perpendicular to your center line. Now you've got crossing lines that should be centered in the first circle that you scribed.

STEP 4: Center Punch and Drill

Make sure to take a close look at the marks you've made. If something doesn't line up right, now is the time to fix it! If you're satisfied with the marks on your chisels, use a center punch to mark that spot for drilling. This helps you line things up, and it will guide the drill bit to the right spot without 'walking' around before it starts cutting.

Using a pilot bit, line up the mark from your center punch, and drill all the way through the chisel blade.

Follow that drill with the 1/8" (or #29) to prepare for tapping the threads.

Note, you can use the 1/8" bit first, but I like to drill pilot holes with drill bits that I don't mind breaking.

STEP 5: Tap the Threads

Using an 8-32 tap, it's time to put threads in the holes you've drilled.

The secrets to tapping threads, especially in steel, are to use lots of lubrication, take it slow and steady, and clear the cuttings out of the tap.

Start the oiled tap, as straight as you can get it, into the chisel blade. Keep in mind that you are cutting away metal. You'll need to turn the tap forwards until you feel resistance, and then turn it back a little bit to clear the cuttings. It's a 'two steps forwards one step backward' sort of process. You may even need to completely unscrew the tap to clean the metal cuttings out of it. Clean out the chips frequently so that you don't fill up the flutes in the tap and start jamming the tool. It's better to use up oil and paper towels than it is to break a tap.

When you're finished tapping the threads, take a moment to clean everything up. Oily metal shards don't mix with tools, wood, or paint very well. They're also hot, and they make unpleasant splinters.

STEP 6: Countersink the Holes

The screw for the carbide inserts that I used extends just a tad beneath the flat surface on the bottom of the carbide. Because of this, you'll need to countersink the holes just a touch to fully tighten the screws and hold down the carbide inserts.

I used a 1/4" drill bit, and drilled down just enough to reach the full width of the head of the bit. You can test fit your inserts between drilling to custom tailor this clearance, but that's the depth that worked for me. Just don't go too deep and reduce the length of the threads more than you have to.

STEP 7: Protect the Metal

One of my chisels was a tad rusty, so I sanded off the rust. I wouldn't use sandpaper on a nice chisel, but it was 1/8th of a $20 purchase, and I'm only using it as a tool holder, so I decided not to feel too bad about it.

Unprotected metal will rust from the humidity in the air, so it's important to coat your tools with something to keep out the moisture. I had Johnson's Paste Wax on hand because I use it on my tablesaw, so I applied it to the unprotected blades of my chisels. Many other products exist, but check to make sure that whatever you use doesn't contain oils or silicone that can cause problems with paint and finishes.

STEP 8: Final Assembly

Now you can screw your carbide inserts to the lathe tools that you've prepared!

Check that they fit nicely. Be sure that they're centered on the chisel blades, and that the cutting surfaces of the original chisels don't extend beyond the base of the carbide inserts.

You want the carbide to be screwed down tight, but be cautious because carbide is brittle and can shatter under pressure. There is a such thing as too tight.

Also, remember that the carbide blades are sharp!

STEP 9: Grind the Extra Threads

If your hold down screws extend beyond the bottom of your chisels, you'll probably want to grind down the excess and make them flush so that they don't catch on your tool rest. I did this with a bench grinder, but you could do this with many different tools. Hacksaw, Dremel, sanding disc, etc. If you expose bare metal, make sure to protect it with some wax, as well.

STEP 10: Closing Thoughts

I will still probably tweak these tools a bit, but they turned into a very nice (and affordable) set of carbide cutters! I'm happy throwing chips on the garage floor again.

I need to figure out a nicer way to align the square cutter while I tighten it. The premium tools that use these inserts have a shelf milled into them to locate the cutter and to keep it from rotating when you tighten the screw. For now, I'm happy enough with indexing it by hand until I get it just right. Again, be careful of how sharp the blades are when you're handling them!

I'm also curious about the feel of round bottom tools. Most chisels are flat, but you get a nice feeling from rocking and rolling a round gouge on your tool rest, so I will eventually try to come up with a way to mount these cutters on a round bar and achieve that feel.

What do you think? Have you done a project like this? What did you do better? What should I do next time?

Thanks for reading !

Comments

[mbgoldberg]

Thanks for posting this. Keystock cost me $5.00/bar so 4 bars would cost me $20.00. Got the HF chisels with 20% off coupon for 22.50 which came with handles ready for affixing.
Agree with other posters- heat up the chisels to anneal/soften the steel for tapping, and use plenty of cutting fluid.
Also found the cheap 10 piece metric drill/tap/deburr set from HF worked great (https://www.harborfreight.com/metric-drill-tap-deburr-bit-set-95529.html). Has a 4mm drill bit at the tip followed by tapping threads. I first used a 1/8 drill bit, then used 4mm tap to enlarge slightly from both top and bottom (so didn't engage threads). The 1/4" or so of drill bit helped keep the tap perpendicular as I manually tapped it.

[skrieger]

on your repurposed tool from HF grind down the end to the thickness of your new carbide blade. shaping the back of the grind down to match the cutter blade on the backside, this will give you blade a reference guide so the blade will guide itself into the right location making sure it will sit straight and true. on your round shaft follow the same directions. I have used 1/2 inch Sq. stock metal bar from FB and made a quick handle for my new tools, this way they look different so I pick up the carbide tool without searching my old stuff and beside it is fun on your lathe. my total price was $ 60 for the 2, and I got 4 replacements carbide tips for each. cutters fairly cheap at
http://eddiecastelin.com/.

[Bobbar]

Hi, I have the Harbor Freight $20 chisel set and am unable to find a punch nor a drill bit that will punch nor drill the chisels. Please someone tell me what is harder than a cobalt bit or a Ace hardware center punch.

[jimustanguitar]

I sure didn't need any special tooling for my build. The drill bits and taps that I used probably came from Harbor Freight as well. I was using an "automatic" center punch that's just a spring loaded point that pops itself when you apply enough pressure to it, so that's a pretty light duty tool as well.

I think that the factory heat treating between chisels is wildly inconsistent on the HF tools. Somebody else asked, and you might have read in another comment on the thread, that one of my chisels cut like butter and the other one was 'tight' and squeaked the tools when I tapped it... I'm not sure which way is "right" or how they're supposed to come when they're new, but they were definitely different than each other from the get go.

Anyway, the other poster recommended annealing the chisels before tapping them if people ran into this issue. I'm not a metallurgy buff, so I don't actually know the right way to do that safely without doing some google searching first.

[XTL]

Heat the end up with a blowtorch to red hot. let cool naturally - will now be soft. To harden again - heat up to red hot and then cool by dipping in can of oil.
To get a controlled temper you need to do more work (look it up) but these tools are not used for cutting so you just want it a bit stronger than unannealed steel and this will do.

[mpcleverdon]

Thats right the annealing is the best way to go anyway as you may save yourself a few drill bits or taps, but retempering is also easy, you polish the steel so that when reheating you can carefully watch the colours flowing through the material, the yellow(straw) color will give you back a pretty hard temper and then quickly dunk the piece into oil or even water. If you were to heat back to red hot then you would make the material very brittle and possibly dangerous (it can shatter in your hands while using it), the other colours that can be seen e.g. blue makes the steel into a spring etc. it's a very interesting process and not hard to learn.

[bigmike4u]

I made a set out of 1/2" hexagon rod. That way you can turn the cutter 45 degrees to either side and get a scraping action. A little hard to get used to, but they work great.

[Ralphxyz]

Nice article, thank you!!

re:

Step 6: Countersink the Holes

Why would you bother countersinking the holes?

The hole is covered by the insert, the screw head sinks/sets in the insert

not the tool.

[Ace918]

Look very carefully at the picture in step 6, you will see that a portion of the un-threaded part of the screw protrudes below the cutter, the countersink allows clearance for this part of the mounting screw

[corradini]

Not only that - even without that, it's not a bad idea to at least chamfer the hole a tiny bit to make sure the cutter sits flush to the surface. (Basically deburring, but not everyone has a set of deburring tools - a slight touch with a countersink is a reasonable substitute.)

[JohnN346]

a-HA!! Got it now. I wondered the same thing.

[Ralphxyz]

Wow, thanks that explains it!!

[jimustanguitar]

The taper on the bottom of the screw protrudes below the bottom of these inserts. It wasn't part of the original plan, but I couldn't fully tighten them without this step.

[corradini]

I can't emphasize enough how helpful a good tapping/cutting fluid is, here. HF's chisels are HSS (high-speed steel) - I'm guessing M2 - which is pretty tough. At minimum, use Tap-Ease, SafeTap, or something with a similar name. I'd really recommend a sulfur-compound-containing fluid like ReLiOn, which changed my life when tapping tough-to-tap hard steels. While it works for mild steel etc., basic lubes like 3-in-1 (and certainly not WD40, which I love but not for this) aren't ideal for tapping/cutting. Seriously, not only does it make tapping much easier, but it also saves the unbelievable headache of a broken tap jammed permanently in the hole. In which case you need to buy a new tap and a new part/tool, and you're certainly done for the day... :-(

(Related tip: unless it's for a one-off job, buy good taps, not HF and not even the Irwin/VermontAmerican at AceHomeLowe's. I had an old machinist who runs a little tooling supply store take one look at my Irwin tap busted off in a thick piece of 303 s/s and laugh. He pulled out a Swiss-made tap, chucked it in his Bridgeport, put a drop of ReLiOn on it, and to my horror ran it at full RPM into the steel. Went through like butter. No "backing-off to clear the chips", either. I bought the tap and the ReLiOn, never looked back.)

[JohnN346]

Great idea & I am buying the items to make these today. Thank you.

[davidgar]

Nice article. Will have to try soon. You can get carbide cutters fairly cheap at

http://eddiecastelin.com/. They average out about 6 to $10 apiece.

[jimustanguitar]

I debated on which carbide inserts to buy. NZ Carbide also has more affordable cutters, but the EWT sales copy got me :) and I decided to "splurge" on their more premium inserts.

[BigAndRed]

I have been getting cheap TC bits from ebay, round, square, triangle and diamond shapes.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10pcs-48-Types-CNC-Car...

Just ordered several boxes to make some more tools. I am using 'bright mild steel' for the shafts and turning my own wood handles.

HSS round bar about 200-300mm long for the tool also makes good tools, just grind the shape you want for cutting tip on the end.

photos 1. TC tip on deep hollowing tool, 2. 2 HSS tools, HSS tip tool and TC tip tool, 3. 4 homemade tools.

[baecker03]

Chinese "hss" < quality hss

[BigAndRed]

These Chinese tools are poor quality High Carbon Steel not HSS.