Combo drill/boring tools for lathe- Any good ones?

npolanosky · Feb 22, 2019

I'm looking for a good general purpose tool for drilling and opening up blind bores on a CNC lathe. Lots of low volume job shop work, primarily in aluminum and steels. Recently most of the bores have been .5" to 1.5" deep and .625 to 3" diameter. Obviously twist drills aren't ideal for this, and I don't usually do anything that justifies a big U-drill.

I saw some tools advertised a few different places that can drill, bore, face, and turn- Using one tool and insert for all of that sounds pretty great. Obviously it probably won't match the MRR of some of the single-purpose tools, but the versatility might earn it a space in my turret. The ones I am looking at (something like this) take a CCMT 3(2.5)X insert which are cheap as dirt and plentiful in my toolbox.

Anyone have any favorites in this style, or overwhelmingly positive or negative things to say about them?

litlerob1 · Feb 22, 2019

Try theses ones.

ISCAR Hole Making Product Line

Kapster · Feb 23, 2019

npolanosky said:
Anyone have any favorites in this style, or overwhelmingly positive or negative things to say about them?

I have all three sizes in what you linked, production tool supply had a sale on them awhile ago for $50 each. I haven't really used them yet, I tried to bore with the 5/8 tool and COULD NOT get it not to chatter. The sleeve I had it in only had one set screw contacting the shank, maybe part of it. The insert could have been part of it. I don't care for the ccmt inserts we're using now, looking for something else. I suspect they're too long to be of much use boring.

npolanosky · Feb 24, 2019

litlerob1 said:
Try theses ones.

ISCAR Hole Making Product Line

Those look nice. I like that they have the option for ID grooving too- I have some Delrin parts coming up that I bet those would work great for! I'll have to ask my distributor about cost on Monday.

Pete Deal · Feb 24, 2019

I bought a ceratizit ecocut. I can't remember the exact size but the minimum bore the one I got would do was about 1/2 or 9/16". I got mine in a kit that came with 10 inserts. I used it on 1018 and it worked pretty well. No chattering. For aluminum I think it would be great. I have not used it since but it is a handy concept because it drills the hold and then acts as a boring bar to finish it. It sounds/looks like it might be a Chinese piece of crap but I checked them out pretty well. Allied Machine sells them. There is a guy on ebay that had the best deals on the kits when I got mine.

All these fancy ($100+ each) drills scare me to death though. One little opps and $100+ gone.

Delw · Feb 24, 2019

I been using the sandvic insert drills for years the smallest one was I think 9/16 takes 2 inserts. I use them for roughing bores all the time even in stainless.
generally use the 3/4 or bigger one for roughing the i.d. after drilling with it. I dont really like to use the 9/16 ones unless its soft material..
they bore and drill extreamly nice holes and bores.
if you take too much stock off when i.d. cutting with the longer ones they will bend a tad. then your drilling sucks as you have to add a slight taper in the program to keep from rubbing.
I havent bought one since the late 90's and we still use the same ones today. and we drilled and bored a ton of holes with them mainly 4340 and 9310 gear steel normalized hardened and tempered. I was really suprized how long they last. couple years ago I found 20 boxs of inserts for 5 bucks a box local and bought them all. the inside insert on the sandvik one uses a different grade due to speed.

I havent tried the single insert ones yet

litlerob1 · Feb 24, 2019

Delw said:
I been using the sandvic insert drills for years the smallest one was I think 9/16 takes 2 inserts. I use them for roughing bores all the time even in stainless.
generally use the 3/4 or bigger one for roughing the i.d. after drilling with it. I dont really like to use the 9/16 ones unless its soft material..
they bore and drill extreamly nice holes and bores.
if you take too much stock off when i.d. cutting with the longer ones they will bend a tad. then your drilling sucks as you have to add a slight taper in the program to keep from rubbing.
I havent bought one since the late 90's and we still use the same ones today. and we drilled and bored a ton of holes with them mainly 4340 and 9310 gear steel normalized hardened and tempered. I was really suprized how long they last. couple years ago I found 20 boxs of inserts for 5 bucks a box local and bought them all. the inside insert on the sandvik one uses a different grade due to speed.

I havent tried the single insert ones yet

He's asking about; Drill, Bore, Face, Turn. Not a Drill that can just use the peripheral insert to Rough a bore.

R

Delw · Feb 25, 2019

npolanosky said:
I'm looking for a good general purpose tool for drilling and opening up blind bores on a CNC lathe. Lots of low volume job shop work, primarily in aluminum and steels. Recently most of the bores have been .5" to 1.5" deep and .625 to 3" diameter. Obviously twist drills aren't ideal for this, and I don't usually do anything that justifies a big U-drill.

I saw some tools advertised a few different places that can drill, bore, face, and turn- Using one tool and insert for all of that sounds pretty great. Obviously it probably won't match the MRR of some of the single-purpose tools, but the versatility might earn it a space in my turret. The ones I am looking at (something like this) take a CCMT 3(2.5)X insert which are cheap as dirt and plentiful in my toolbox.

Anyone have any favorites in this style, or overwhelmingly positive or negative things to say about them?

litlerob1 said:
He's asking about; Drill, Bore, Face, Turn. Not a Drill that can just use the peripheral insert to Rough a bore.

R

I gave my 2 cents on the 1st part of his question, I purposely disregarded the 2nd half cause I never used them.
so do I get 1/2 a point? :rolleyes5:

litlerob1 · Feb 25, 2019

The problem Delw, is using Indexable Drills that way, wears the peripheral insert more than the center one. So when you go back to drillin' that's when the Drill fails. As much as I enjoy melted Indexable Drills, others don't seem to.

Don't get me wrong, I do exactly what you describe, but it's not something I'd prescribe.

R

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Combo drill/boring tools for lathe- Any good ones?

npolanosky

Cast Iron

litlerob1

Diamond

Kapster

Cast Iron

npolanosky

Cast Iron

Pete Deal

Titanium

Delw

Stainless

litlerob1

Diamond

Delw

Stainless

litlerob1

Diamond

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