My dad has a fairly old magic drill attachment gizmo which has a phillips bit output shaft. I'd like to part off the end of the bit and put a collar on so I can attach a small chuck instead. I imagine a hacksaw would work, but I need practice on the lathe.
I'm a pretty comprehensive newbie with a lathe, but I've done a fair bit of plain steel and aluminum, but this parting job is turning out to be difficult. The problem is I can't seem to cook up an edge that will cut, seemingly regardless of rake and the angle at which I apply the tool. I shifted to the back-gear due to really bad chatter which took the edge off the tool early on.
I suppose the metal I'm trying to part is something extra-hard. At this point, I'm about half-way through and all I'm doing now is polishing the surface I'm trying to cut. Its now quite smooth and shiny...
My guess is I need to do a better job of grinding the parting tool. At present, I'm trying to follow basic tool grinding recommendations in the SB "How to run a lathe" book. If someone could give some hints about how to set up a parting tool for "hard" steel, I'd really appreciate it.
If its relevant, I'm using an Atlas 6" with a fairly ancient half used parting tool.
Thanks,
Greg