the mess of machining cast iron

should try this. once the dust hits steel, it seems sort of magnet and tends to just cling there. Horrible stuff.

A vacuum nozzle by the cut while cutting may help.

I've been dealing with the fun of "stainless swarf of doom" the past few days. 304SS seems to machine ok on my lathe, but it does indeed tend to produce endless swarf that tries to tangle up everywhere.

And even a "chip breaker" grind on the tool doesn't do the job!!!

On Monday, June 9, 2014 12:57:31 PM UTC-4, Cydrome Leader wrote: I tried to hold a magnet by the cutter to catch some of the

A good idea that I read here is to turn a zip lock bag inside out and put a magnet in it. Pick up the magnetic smarf and then turn the bag right side out so the smarf in inside the bag and the magnet is on the outside.

Sorry , but I do not remember the original poster.

Dan

One of the old books Lindsay sold described the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company's experiments with feeds and speeds back around WW1, before carbide and flood coolant(?). They said that cast iron machined about the same with or without cutting oil and suggested milling it dry only to minimize the oily mess.

Some of that dust is graphite and not magnetic.

the home machine type forums go back and forth on this. "Machine cast iron dry" seems to be the mantra, but people with huge machines in large shops do appear to use flood coolant, which isn't going to be happening with any of the tabletop stuff I use.

I can't wait to see what sort of mess flycutting the stuff makes.

Any favorite durabar or equivalent cast iron barstock internet suppliers people suggest? onlinemetals.com doesn't seem to carry the stuff for some reason.

Cydrome Leader fired this volley in news:ln5f5v $s26$ snipped-for-privacy@reader1.panix.com:

Hasn't anyone here ever heard of a vacuum cleaner?

Lloyd

When I made some parts from gym weights I just ran the lathe slowly enough that the chips didn't go far.

-jsw

A "chip breaker" is needed if you machine much stainless. :-)

Not in my experience

Nor mine. I've been using good carbide insert tooling (Kennemetal stuff I got years back and had to mill down to fit my smaller lathe) as well as cheap Chinese insert tooling. All of the inserts have chip breaker profiles, and neither the high end nor the Chinese break the 304 chips with any consistency. Occasionally a pass will be just right and the chips break, but most of the time I get long swarf-o-doom.

The breaker just makes the swarf a tighter curl.

Pete, did you consider interrupting your cutting every few revolutions or so, just stopping the cutter momentarily while the part still spins?

Ignoramus32376 fired this volley in news:b9qdnQU5TfbPzArOnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Well, THAT would be great for surface finish!

Of course, he could do that while roughing, and still put up with the 'stringies' on the finishing passes.

Lloyd

Exactly, every stop is like doing a "spring" pass and the second rev it cuts deeper, even with a pretty rigid setup. Mostly I just put on a heavy glove and clear out the swarf-o-doom every couple passes lest the active swarf pull in the residual swarf and make a rats nest surrounding the part.

I've resorted to that on occaision. The final cut then makes stainless steel wool if the cutter is good and sharp - and that crap winds around everything and flies off in lumps in all directions.

I caught my foot on a long SS chip that was on the floor. It was there because I was making long stringy chips so fast the chip pan couldn't handle them. The chip cut right through the top of my new right boot. I hate 304 chips. Eric

I guess I've been lucky then, just a couple nicks on my finger. I still have more 304 parts to make though...