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Lathe tool identification

jkoll42

Active member
Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Messages
26
Location
Philadelphia
Hey all - not sure if there is anyone with a machinist background here who might be able to shed some light. I found this cigar box of lathe tools in my fathers things and am trying to figure out what they might have been used for. He wasn't a machinist and didn't have a lathe but grandparents were involved in the Brooklyn and Philadelphia Naval Yard. Stellite,Tantung, Mo-Max, E.V.M. It's all high end metal and all hand ground. I was hoping that someone might see the shapes and shed some light on what they might have been for.
 

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Toolmaker65

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 30, 2016
Messages
98
Location
York, PA
Looks like you have a few boring tools used to make holes with more precision than drilling, a parting tool, grooving tool, left handed turning tool, and a few form tools. These are real old school lathe tools. They were eventually replaced by brazed carbide and later carbide insert tooling. Nothing really out of the ordinary or valuable there. All lathe tooling is considered consumable. I still from time to time use the old high speed steel tool bits when I need a one of type of form tool for a specific job. And yes they must be ground by hand to keep them sharp and in the necessary geometry to cut correctly.

Some people who have vintage lathes with the old lantern style tool posts still use these exclusively. If you know a machinist or tool maker,they may give you couple pennies for them, but most of us in the trade already have a couple pounds of these things rolling around in our toolbox.

Sent from my LM-Q610(FGN) using The Garage Journal mobile app
 
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C lectric

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
78
Location
Canada
No I am not a machinist but have done some.
1--Arrow looking tool. I used for guide for cutting shape for grinding threading tools. Also as guide to realign the thread tool if it had to be moved.
2--Two tools Just below arrow -- don't know but look like they could have been made for repetitive angle cut. Other wise the intention may have been lost. I have a bunch of those whose original purpose defy my memory.
3--small rule on box corner. Depth measuring rule for small holes for rough checks and of course lots of other uses as it is a general rule.
4-- three tools to the right. Mo-Max is simply a blank needing yet to be
ground.
One just below looks like a turning tool to open up an ID in a hole. THe sharp radius outside is for clearance behind the cutting edge.
THird cutter ???? Comment as per 2. Could still be used for surfacing or cleaning an OD.
5-- :Left to right Guesses as again the original intention/use is gone.
------A deep hole cutter for small ID finishing after initial drilling .
------bottom of tool looks like a specific radius or maybe to provide a general large radius to avoid a sharp corner. Other rough end was cut by grinding which might also mean it too was meant to shape the bottom of a hole used in a boring bar. Just butchered to length on a grinder.
------hard to tell. May be simply a general purpose cutter.
------hook looking tool could be an internal threading tool in a shallow hole.
other sharp end for cut off of thin material.
------Hook could be for internal groove cuts for O ring or circlip type clips.
------unused blank
------cutoff tool or parting tool, R.Hand. Cut off washers or cut a shorter
piece off a blank to leave any burr on the remainder.
------Maybe a grooving tool
------almost looks like a brazed carbide inset tool for general facing
------another internal grooving tool
------another internal grooving tool but actual cutting part does not show clearly.

Anyways these are my best guesses based on the limited machining I have done. I have ground similar shapes for various purposes and specific applications. Many of them never get used again so eventually the original use is forgotten.
------
 
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