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Long HSS toolbits

Good luck. That just may be a tough one to fill. You might get annealed re-forge stock to make that size but then you have to forge it to size or machine it. Since this stuff costs like sliver (damn near) yoou don't want to waste it of you can avoid it.

It's not unreasonable for a man to hand forge what you need from 1 1/4 bar in a coal forge under a 50 lb Little Giant power hammer. He will have to watch his temperatures. If you need tool steel properties you probably need a salt bath shop to heat treat it for you.
 
Forrest, you bring to my mind an issue that's been nagging me for awhile.
I have a G&E 16" shaper that sooner or later I plan to revive. I have a couple of the "adjustable" toolholders from Armstrong, and one to hold a boring bar for cutting internal keyways.
But I'd like to set up a couple of big, honking tool bits that would fill up that .750"X1.500" slot in that tool post and really move some metal!
I've seen pix of big tools like this being used. Are they HSS forged to shape or ground from solid? If forged, does it require a rehardening afterwards?
Dave
 
D.O.M.:

If you are looking at really old pictures, those long bits might be plain old high carbon tool steel. i.e. Before HSS was invented.

Another approach is to WELD whatever you want to use as a cutting edge to an extension. It can be a "forge weld", also called a "hammer weld", done at the forge & anvil. Tools, particularly woodworking tools, were made commercially by forge welding a carbon steel cutting edge to wrought iron or mild steel as recently as the 1920's and some probably still are.

I've never seen HSS used this way, only high-carbon tool steel, but I don't know that it can't be done with HSS. QUESTION FOR THE GROUP: What would happen to HSS brought to welding heat, other than that you'd have to re-heat-treat it?

John Ruth
 
Several good pages in Oscar Perrigo's Lathe Design Construction and Operation (about 1916) dicussing quite obviously HSS tools forged and heat treated in the shops they were employed in. We are just 90 years down the road now, and it is difficult for us to fully appreciate that much more of this went on than did going down to the corner machine shop supply and buying pretty little pieces of HSS ready for us to grind on.

All you have to do is dig some of the Bull in the Woods cartoons to see the monsters they drew from the crib. The artist did not invent these sizes or shapes, but tried to sketch what he saw.

John
 
Hey there,

We currently use 1/2x4x12" carbide ball endmills and such. They are used in CNC routers to machine foam. Do a google search for "Foam Cutting Endmill" I can get you our supplier if you want, let me know.

They are carbide though.

Hope this helps!

NK
 
A possible source for large chunks of HSS that could be forged or ground to shape is dull or worn out HSS drill bits or chucking reamers. I've got several 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" chucking reamers that I've kept just as a source of HSS if the need should ever arise. A tool like Doug is looking for would need considerable grinding or forging and heat treating if made from this stock.
However, I'm not dead certain that the whole tool would be HSS - I once heard that a less expensive tool steel was welded to the HSS cutting portion of tools like this. I'd really like to know if that is the case. The shank and holding portion of tools like this have always been soft enough to be machinable, in my limited experience.

Regards,
Jim S.
 
What would happen to HSS brought to welding heat, other than that you'd have to re-heat-treat it?
I've used HSS that had been welded without noticing anything different. I suspect that any kind of rapid cooling is going to ack as a quench - maybe not to maximum hardness or toughness, but still pretty good. I know it's really hard to anneal the M series of tool steels, requiring 2200 degF + and a slow cooling.

But that being said why not simply braze the tip on the shank? It'll hold as well as welding and not exceed the working temperature of the HSS, so there'd be no concern with annealing.

I've gotten really good use from brazing A2 form tools to mild steel shanks. A light air blast quenches them very nicely after the brazing process and they cut well after a little sharpening.
 








 
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