In selecting a lathe an amateur may exercise more or less taste, and
he may be governed somewhat by the length of his purse; the same is
true in the matter of chucks; but when he comes to the selection or
making of turning tools he must conform to fundamental principles; he
must profit as far as possible by the experience of others, and will,
after all, find enough to be learned by practice.
Tools of almost every description may be purchased at reasonable
prices, but the practice of making one's own tools cannot be too
strongly recommended. It affords a way out of many an emergency, and
where time is not too valuable, a saving will be realized. A few bars
of fine tool steel, a hammer, and a small anvil, are all that are
required, aside from fire and water. The steel should be heated to a
low red, and shaped with as little hammering as possible; it may then
be allowed to cool slowly, when it may be filed or ground to give it
the required form. It may now be hardened by heating it to a cherry
red and plunging it straight down into clean cool (not too cold)
water. It should then be polished on two of its sides, when the temper
may be drawn in the flame of an alcohol lamp or Bunsen gas burner; or,
if these are not convenient, a heated bar of iron may be used instead,
the tool being placed in contact with it until the required color
appears. This for tools to be used in turning steel, iron, and brass
may be a straw color. For turning wood it may be softer. The main
point to be observed in tempering a tool is to have it as hard as
possible without danger of its being broken while in use. By a little
experiment the amateur will be able to suit the temper of his tools to
the work in hand.
In the engraving accompanying the present article a number of hand
turning tools are shown, also a few tools for the slide rest. These
tools are familiar to machinists and may be well known to many
amateurs; but we give them for the benefit of those who are
unacquainted with them and for the sake of completeness in this series
of articles.
[Illustration: TURNING TOOLS.]
Fig. 1 is the ordinary diamond tool, made from a square bar of steel
ground diagonally so as to give it two similar cutting edges. This
tool is perhaps more generally useful than any of the others. The
manner of using it is shown in Fig. 23; it is placed on the tool rest
and dexterously moved on the rest as a pivot, causing the point to
travel in a circular path along the metal in the lathe. Of course only
a small distance is traveled over before the tool is moved along on
the rest. After a little experience it will be found that by
exercising care a good job in plain turning may be done with the tool.
Fig. 2 shows a sharp V shaped tool which will be found useful for many
purposes. Fig. 3 is a V shaped tool for finishing screw threads. Figs.
4 and 5 are round-nosed tools for concave surfaces; Fig. 6, a square
tool for turning convex and plane surfaces. The tool shown in Fig. 7
should be made right and left; it is useful in turning brass, ivory,
hard wood, etc. Fig. 8 is a separating tool; Fig. 9 is an inside tool,
which should be made both right and left, and its point may be either
round, V shaped, or square. Fig. 24 shows the manner of holding an
inside tool. Fig. 10 is a tool for making curved undercuts. Fig. 11 is
a representative of a large class of tools for duplicating a given
form.
These figures represent a series of tools which may be varied
infinitely to adapt them to different purposes. The user, if he is
wide awake, is not long in discovering what angle to give the cutting
edge, what shape to give the point, and what position to give the tool
in relation to the work to be done.
Having had experience with hand tools it requires only a little
practice and observation to apply the same principles to slide rest
tools.
A few examples of this class of tools are given. Fig. 12 is the
ordinary diamond pointed tool, which should be made right and left.
The cutting edge may have a more or less acute angle, according to the
work to be done, and the inclined or front end of the tool may be
slightly squared or rounded, according to the work. Fig. 13 is a
separating tool, which is a little wider at the cutting edge than any
where else, so that it will clear itself as it is forced into the
work.
For brass this tool should be beveled downward slightly. By giving the
point the form shown in Fig. 3 it will be adapted to screw cutting.
Fig. 14 shows an inside tool for the slide rest; its point may be
modified according to the work to be done. Fig. 15 is a side tool for
squaring the ends of shafts; Figs. 16, 17, 18, and 19 represent tools
for brass, Fig. 16 is a round-nosed tool for brass, Fig. 17 a V shaped
tool, Fig. 18 a screw thread tool, and Fig. 19 a side tool. In boring,
whether the object is cored or not, it is desirable, where the hole is
not too large, to take out the first cut with a drill. The drill for
the purpose is shown in Fig. 20, the drill holder in Fig. 21, and the
manner of using in Fig 22. The drill holder, B, is held by a mortised
post placed in the rest support. The slot of the drill holder is
placed exactly opposite the tail center and made secure. The drill,
which is flat, is drilled to receive the tail center, and it is kept
from turning by the holder, and is kept from lateral movement and
chattering by a wrench, C, which is turned so as to bind the drill in
the slot of the holder.
The relative position of the tool and work is shown in Figs. 25, 26,
27, and 28; Fig. 25 shows the position for brass; Fig. 26 for iron and
steel; Fig. 27 the relative position of the engine rest tool and its
work; and Fig. 28 the position of the tool for soft metal and wood.
In all of these cases the point of the tool is above the center of the
work. In the matter of the adjustment of the tool, as well as in all
other operations referred to, experiment is recommended as the best
means of gaining valuable knowledge in the matter of turning metals.