• Spring 2024 meetup in Calgary - date Saturday, April 20/2024. discussion Please RSVP Here to confirm and get your invitation and the location details. RSVP NOW so organizers can plan to get sufficient food etc. It's Tomorrow Saturday! you can still RSVP until I stop checking my phone tomorrow More info and agenda
  • We are having email/registration problems again. Diagnosis is underway. New users sorry if you are having trouble getting registered. We are exploring different options to get registered. Contact the forum via another member or on facebook if you're stuck. Update -> we think it is fixed. Let us know if not.
  • Spring meet up in Ontario, April 6/2024. NEW LOCATION See Post #31 Discussion AND THE NEW LOCATION

Tools, bits, cutters, When they break Who's fault is it?

Tools, bits, cutters, When they break Who's fault is it?

  • Mine I pushed it too hard

    Votes: 6 60.0%
  • Mine I did something stupid

    Votes: 10 100.0%
  • Mine I didn't understand what would happen or see it correctly innocent

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Tools fault (cheap)

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Tools fault (expensive)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Machine's fault

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Workpiece not clamped, rigidity

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Material's fault

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • just a freak of nature

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • Total voters
    10

cuslog

Super User
Premium Member
Usually my fault for one reason or another but you know, cutting steel especially, is not easy on cutting tools and cutting tools are consumables. Sometimes we "consume" them faster than others - I think a lot of the time, it comes down to rigidity (or lack thereof).
I sometimes shake my head at some of the old "toothless wonders" I sometimes try to make do one more cut.
And Aluminum: I've got a kind of "Love / hate relationship there - I love how it cuts and how much better / longer tooling life I get with it but I use quite a bit of WD40 as coolant / lube on it and hate how chips get stuck to everything.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
Tool breaking is almost always machinist fault. If machine is not performing maybe machinist needs to maintain it or maybe he is pushing too hard. Only in total hobby style machines one can start seeing machine faults.

Cheap tooling - such as inserts etc. usually simply do not last too long and when dull do not cut too well - machinist that pushes things at this point to the breaking point knows he should have changed that insert. Its not insert's fault that Chinese used only 3% cobalt vs. 11% needed.

When parting it is usually machinist at fault as well - machinist ignores worn out cross slide screw, machinist forgets to adjust such screw if possible, machinist sets tool height too low. Machinist uses a dull tool. Machinists tries to part too much or too far. Tool not correct shape. Insert loose. Etc.

Now accuracy can be fault of tools / machines etc. quite often - cheap tooling even with best machinist around can lead to problems as even best machinist has some kind of time limit to do things and thus cannot "fix" all the problems.
 
Top