What's new
What's new
By:
Advanced search…

Chinese boring head: Someone tell me its a bad idea...

T

thunderskunk

Cast Iron
Joined
Nov 13, 2018
Location
Middle-of-nowhere
So... I don't do a lot of boring. If I did, I would buy Frank's kit, as it's unquestionably a great buy for the money.

But I don't do a lot of boring. I have one particular job where the only reason I'm considering it is surface finish; the end product has a piston ring and a lot of open tolerance. I have a boring head for the bridgeport, but the parts are already going to be fixtured in the robodrill, perfectly set up to have the boring occur right then and there.

How bad of an idea is it to buy this from China? For $50 a piece, heck I'll buy two. I'm not running a brand new machine, but I have good pull studs, and it's on the slower side for speeds; only cutting A36.

boring head pic.jpg
 
I am pretty sure you could find a nice used Criterion with a 3/4" shank used for about $200. I wouldn't trust anything at the price of that Chinese tool. If you buy it I would wear a full face shield while using it.
 
Well, it won't cost you much to buy it and report back. It looks like the same cheap boring head they sell with a threaded mount that I use on my import mill/drill. I bet you find out that the "micro adjust" doesn't exist and it moves .001" per dial division, .002" diameter. Doubt any of it is hardened. It would be a bad idea if I bought it, but I think it's a great idea for you to buy it and give us a review!
 
How bad of an idea is it to buy this from China? For $50 a piece, heck I'll buy two. I'm not running a brand new machine, but I have good pull studs, and it's on the slower side for speeds; only cutting A36.

View attachment 277032[/QUOTE]

Heck, if you just want to throw away a hundred dollars just send it my way....;)

Im with the popular opinion, if it's that cheap I'd be leery of it.
 
Run Forest!!!!!

I was just poking around fleabay this morning looking at cat40 Sandvik and Kaiser boring heads. For a few hundred dollars you can get a real nice unit. I try to interpolate as many holes as I can but when I do need to bore some its usually on a part I have a fair amount of time into and I don't want to be fooling around with junk and fixing crap that should have worked to begin with.
 
I've used a few cheapo import boring heads in low speed manual work and from my experience, they're a pain to dial in and even then you have to constantly check your sizes. The fit-n-finish on mine was very poor which makes it hard to just "lightly" adjust. And really, 90% of the work we do with a boring head is close tolerance and/or surface finish critical work right? I'd worry about them being pushed to general CNC speeds as you can't feel when "Oop, something doesn't feel right, better back off."

Maybe mine were ultra cheapo's, but next time I'm shopping for one, I'll stick to the "good used" market.
 
A fair amount of my work comes from a friends machine shop, so when he brought me a job and dropped of a Kaiser BT40 boring head I hand loaded it into my CAT40 machine in place of my Criterion. Wow, they are NICE. I'm thinking he loaned me a BT40 one rather than a CAT40 so I wouldn't "forget" to take it out of the tool changer or try to buy it from him. :D
 
"Used good" it is.

When the general response is "SURE! Buy it and tell us how it goes. I'd never put that in my machine," you tend to think it's more trouble than it's worth.
 
thunderskunk said:
"Used good" it is.

When the general response is "SURE! Buy it and tell us how it goes. I'd never put that in my machine," you tend to think it's more trouble than it's worth.
Click to expand...

That, and the fact it's $50 and from China.
Buy a decent one, use it, and if you're never going to use it again just toss it on Ebay to recoup some money back.
 
I'm with the buy it crowd, if you don't need that much precision, AND it is a sparsely used tool for you. The reason I say precision, even with a "good" Criterion, they are only accurate to about .001" IMO, need anything closer and you will fiddle fart around trying to adjust it .0003-.0005". Which brings up another point, do you need it for a greater tolerance that you can interpolate? Or is it a deep hole?

If you need better than a thou or two I would say save up and buy a good boring head, you won't regret it when you need to hold .0005" and it does it all day everyday. :)
 
I had the opportunity to compare a Criterion and a recent Chinese clone hands-on a couple of months ago. You didn't even have to use the clone to tell that it was grossly inferior, and I'm not talking about appearance. Just dialing the slide back and forth across the offset range with a hex key was enough to see that the clone's ways were not even close to parallel. Too tight at one end and finger-shake loose at the other.

Nobody can evaluate the OP's specific device from a photograph. But I would not spend $50 on a new boring head, because the odds are strong that object would be useless and the $50 would be wasted.
 
I bought maritool's boring set and I couldn't be happier. Yes, it is made overseas by Stanny. Is it equal to a big kaiser? No, but I'd say it's 98% the quality for 1/3 the money. The ONLY bad thing I can say is that's there's one division of backlash in the adjustment dial. However, one division is .002mm so take that into consideration. A sneeze probably removes more material.

I've used it a few times now and it's repeatability is better than my measuring repeatability. Here's a .9995" hole I'm doing in some 7075 parts.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Boring Head Pullout
Replies
6
Views
310
angelw
A
R
6" dia x 6" deep bore on MiniMill
Replies
18
Views
511
EmGo
EmGo
B
Modular Endmill Extension (screw on head) Brand Compatibility
Replies
13
Views
421
vr6
vr6
E
advice on how to machine a back side counterbore.
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
Triaged
T
NikoB43
2nd Try: Tooling Machining Ideas to develop C-Bores with an overhang interference directly above features.
Replies
0
Views
401
NikoB43
NikoB43








 

ABOUT PRACTICAL MACHINIST

With more than 10.6 million unique visitors over the last year, Practical Machinist is the most visited site for metalworking professionals. Practical Machinist is the easiest way to learn new techniques, get answers quickly and discuss common challenges with your peers. Register for the world’s largest manufacturing technology forum for free today to stay in the know.

Learn more about us.

STAY CONNECTED

Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Pinterest Twitter Tiktok

Register Become a forum member. Register today.

Sign Up Sign up for our e-newsletter.

© 2024 Copyright Practicalmachinist.com. All Rights reserved.

Back
Top