The Home Machinist!

Thanks. Miscut one of the dovetails, which is why it's flattened off. Next time I will cut the profile on a larger piece of steel so I can slice off multiple holders for finishing

That's a 10mm boring bar for scale

So I milled down the toolholder a little (it's a left handed one - never used it in the lathe anyway) and mounted it in the shaper. Looks like it's working quite well (nice chips start around 0:50 in the video). Another thing I realized is that the indexing crank was 180° out, so it was moving the t...

Part of the problem is that is a piece of corten steel cut out of the roof of my shipping container workshop. I'll mount a vice and try again with a known free machining steel

I took a cut with a HSS tool, and it was a cleaner cut. I was going to try my diamond tangential tool holder to see how that went, but it was about 1/64th too wide to fit in the clapper box

Yep, understood - as I said, it was the first to hand. You're correct - the clapper box was seized up, thankfully it came free after a few gentle taps with a rubber mallet.

I also noted the head was rotating under heavier cuts - the tightening mechanism doesn't feel great - it may need cleaning up and adjustment

Oh I have no doubt the tool has completely the wrong grind for a shaper - I literally grabbed the first tool I saw, which happened to be a brazen carbide one from the 'starter set' that came with my small lathe. It is a nice shaper. As far as I know it was a "new old stock" item, made in 1...

I have a lot to learn

Thanks. These are both neutral rake inserts. I've not used these type before, and it was interested to see the center pin has a camming action to push the insert into the pocket, and then the clamp to hold it down

What is the shiny grey piece under the insert called? What is it made of? And is its purpose just to protect the cutting edge on the other side of the insert from being chipped by the tool?

Even Chris from Clickspring needs a lathe, and he's even made his own files and drills

But without a mill you'll need to be good with a file