039 - Make your own carbide lathe chisel

Carbide lathe chisels are wonderful, but super expensive. I made my own, and saved over $100 (AUD) per chisel.
Plus, its pretty hard to find jarrah handles on any commercial chisels.
Read the breakdown of costs in the article at www.thewoodknig...
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"Serpentine Trek" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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[@michaelmakarevich601]

Paul, great job! Only one little suggestion on how to cut the copper pipe square and easy. Takes 3 min. to make a holder. Any squared piece of wood would do (larger than the diameter of the pipe and fairly thick, like 30-40mm). Drill the appropriate hole in that block of wood and make a cut inside of the hole from the side on the bandsaw (so it could clutch the pipe inside when in the vise). Then insert the copper pipe into the opening with the desired length of the pipe sticking out and put the whole contraption into the vise. This way you can cut a piece of pipe squire, fast and with the set length.

[@ScrapwoodCity]

Really nice idea to make your own carbide tool. Getting them in Europe is really costly! Thanks for sharing!

[@LJTomlinson1]

Another tip, when you have rotated the bit a full circle and it has become dull don't through it away. take it off and put it cutting edge down on a dimond sharpening card and resharpen by moving back and forth. it takes about 5 min to resharpen.

[@czellner5894]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing... You have inspired me make some of mine. They are very expensive here in the US as well! Charlie

[@AndrewKleinWW]

Great project, it seems that making vs buying is a good option for these.

[@TheWoodKnight]

Thanks! In Australia there is just one brand (EWT), in the US there are a few others but even comparing to the most budget brand - if you can spare the time to make it you'll save a ton of money *and* have a handle thats custom made for your hands!

[@MarkMcCluney]

Excellent vid mate and really good brakes; stopped on a dime there at the end! Looking forward to watching more of your stuff.

[@MARKBaid]

Very nice job Paul. Thanks for the info. I've been drilling a round hole for my square stock. I can't believe I hadn't thought of your method. Mark

[@sigguy1361]

I need to make replacement handles for several turning tools I acquired. This inspires me to make some carbide tools that were otherwise "too expensive" to get right now. Thanks for the video!

[@JimCoogan_CoogansWorkshop]

Great video. I was just getting ready to made new handles for my carbide tools like the one you were using but instead I will just make a whole tool from scratch. Thanks for sharing and providing some motivation.

[@TheWoodKnight]

Thanks Jim. Like a lot of projects, this falls into the "why didn't I make it ages ago?!" - I feel like such a chump for getting the two mini carbide tools instead of just making them now!

[@JimCoogan_CoogansWorkshop]

Paul Jenkins And I am right in there with you. I have those same two mini carbide tools and was going to make longer handles for them.

[@BuiltbyBill1]

Great, I'm just getting started at turning, and have some old turning tools. This look like a very good way to get carbide tool cheap.

[@Uncle_Buzz]

Irony. Chisels turning their own replacements. Nice video mate. New subscriber.

[@jimbeaver27]

I made what I thought was a really long handle for my radius square cutter and wish I'd actually gone longer. It's now 24 inches total (8 steel/16 handle), 32 inches total I think would be ideal. When you're hogging out wood fast, and the radius square is excellent for that, if you go to far the long handle is going to come in handy to prevent a bad catch. The long handle allows you to really keep control when the chips are flying.

[@brendenmorley2643]

Wow....that was great. This a project i will do. I too am not too familiar with working with metal, nor have any tools for such. I am curious if this project will give me the motivation to go out and buy a 4" grinder? Thanks so much. Keep them coming.....

[@TheWoodKnight]

Thanks! If you have any 'traditional' (HSS) tools, its generally recommended to get a 8" grinder, but you can get away with 6". The curvature of the 4" is going to be pretty severe so it may be difficult to sharpen anything. I've got a 6" grinder which was a choice made out of budget rather than anything else. The pockets needing to be flat just weren't suitable to be ground on the grinder, unfortunately.

[@peterstewart9376]

Cool!

[@MaDeuce80]

Nice job

[@TheWoodKnight]

Ma Deuce Thanks!

[@ms0099rg]

thanks for this video!!

[@alfkey4155]

you made a handle

[@Jamestee1]

Where did you get the wood from, it looks good , also what type of wood is it .

[@rafaelsantoliquido-santoto4339]

Heya! I didn't get the since of the hold from the carbides scrolls, can some one tell me? Thanks

[@gtrboy77]

I have a question that I don't think that you covered in the video. After you route the notch in the middle of the wood and glue both halves of the blank together, how do you mount it in the lathe with it having a big square hole in the one end?

[@TheWoodKnight]

+gtrboy77 the 60 degree live center fit inside it at the tailstock, with the 4 prong drive in the headstock so I could turn it round enough to make a tenon to put into the chuck

[@straightrazorrevolution8578]

you could also use a rubber ball on that end,and snug your tail stock up to the ball.

[@Lawman212]

How did you choose the alloys for the bar stock? You chose two different kinds and I am wondering whether there is an important reason for that. Thanks!

[@TheWoodKnight]

Availability (what was available to me in stores/what I could get posted to me) was a key factor. I wanted something tougher than cold rolled steel, which is how I ended up with the 4140. I then found somewhere online that delivered the stainless and I got that. For future chisels, I'll probably just go with stainless - which is what the brand name chisels use anyway. Metalworking isn't really my thing. Its not that I didn't enjoy it, I just don't know enough about it.

[@Savage264243]

What does the copper ferrel do?

[@TheWoodKnight]

+Savage264243 two functions - tradition/pretty, and provides extra strength to the end of the chisel where the extra torque could cause a split

[@Savage264243]

Paul Jenkins thanks Paul!

[@havocgtr]

where abouts did you find your inserts?

[@TheWoodKnight]

AZcarbide. You can find links in the article www.thewoodknight.com/carbide-chisels.html

[@TheCerberusInferno]

100 dollars per chisel ????!!!