Where to buy tooling for a lathe

[dbabicky]

Looking for a place to either order or go and buy cutting bits and such for my "New" to me lathe. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've run lathes in the past but it has been a long time. Just picked up a "Filsmith" lathe and am going to start getting used to it again.

 

[lilscorpion]

Looking for a place to either order or go and buy cutting bits and such for my "New" to me lathe. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've run lathes in the past but it has been a long time. Just picked up a "Filsmith" lathe and am going to start getting used to it again.

Cutting bits as in inserts? Or do you need the Tooling? My typical go-to is eBay to be honest but sometimes I have no choice but to order from MSC or another online retailer. It mostly depends on the availability of what you need.


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[The Cobbler]

I bought some tooling off ebay when I was getting started, my lathe came with a fair bit, and I had a few boxes of stuff from my dad as he was a machinist .

 

[dr_clyde]

MSC will have everything, but the pricing isn't awesome. Ebay, McMaster-Carr and Travers tool are other good resources if you know what you are looking for and what it should cost.

 

[DavidB]

I couldn't find much about your lathe but what I did find seemed to indicate it was an older cone head style lathe. The speeds those lathes like to turn are more suited to HSS bits though you can use carbide with them. HSS bits are much cheap and you can grind them to whatever kind of tool you need. You may want to look into them some if you haven't. As mentioned above eBay is a good place to get stuff. You might also want to keep an eye out on Craigslist. Lots of machinist stuff ends up on there for good prices.

I know you said you ran a lathe in the past but if you're looking for info on how to run a lathe there's no better free resource than MePete on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mrpete222

I've also got an older lathe at home. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to answer.

 

[zmotorsports]

MSC will have everything, but the pricing isn't awesome. Ebay, McMaster-Carr and Travers tool are other good resources if you know what you are looking for and what it should cost.

^^This. My go to are Ebay, McMaster Carr and Travers as well. My experience has been that MSC has gotten ridiculous with pricing ever since taking over Enco.

 

[dnschmidt]

Monopolies seldom offer the best deals. When MSC took over Enco they became very close to being a monopoly.

 

[6PTsocket]

Monopolies seldom offer the best deals. When MSC took over Enco they became very close to being a monopoly.

Is lathe tooling really that hard to find? MSC owned Enco and chose to shut it down. MSC has counter service at the Harrisburg, PA warehouse. That place could be it's own country. HUGE!!
There is Travers and a lot of stuff on ebay, Little machine shop. Penn tool in NJ. Victor Exchange in Queens, NYC. There have to be a lot more.

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[dr_clyde]

Lots of small tooling supply houses out there. Not many the size of MSC. They're definitely the biggest but they're far from a monopoly.

 

[matt_i]

Monopolies seldom offer the best deals. When MSC took over Enco they became very close to being a monopoly.

They also bought and closed down J&L Industrial which I believe got them access (etc) to sell Kennametal.

What's the top spindle speed of your lathe? If it will run 1000 rpms you can probably use positive rake carbides, like TCMT (60 deg triangle) or CCMT (80 deg diamond). If its lower I'd recommend buying a bag of HSS square toolbits. The quick-change "dovetail-wedge" toolpost is applicable to almost any lathe and makes life much nicer.

I've had good luck with Shars, I approached initially with trepidation but their Cat40 tooling I use in my machining center runs with no detectable difference to the MariTool stuff I have.

 

[VocaTexas]

You might also want to join this site: https://www.hobby-machinist.com/

It's a really good place for discussing machine tools specifically. Like this place, lots of friendly folks and somebody is always willing to help when somebody asks.

 

[gearhead1]

Used Enco a lot, but as others have mentioned prices went up when MSC bought them. I use Travers and Shars, mostly Shars. http://www.shars.com Shars is discount_machine on eBay. Also try Hemly tool supply. http://www.hemlytool.com

 

[marinusdees]

Add Marshall Tool to the list. Maybe a West Coast outfit.