Using Hard surface rod for tooling

[AllenH59]

Gentlemen
I read somewhere that Stellite is a poor man's carbide, I am wondering if any of you use it, or any other hard surface for cutting tools. If you do use Stellite, which grade of it do you use and how well does it work, I am thinking of building a tangential toolholder for it. It seems to me that one 36" rod would last a long time if it works at all..
Thanks.

[Harold_V]

Stellite is very good at dealing with heat, and is, depending on the alloy, stronger at red heat than at ambient temperatures. There are various formulations, some far better suited to use as a cutting tool than others, so I hesitate to suggest that your idea is sound.

You may have some success checking ebay for old-stock blanks. I encourage you to explore.

Harold

[AllenH59]

Ok Harold..
I will wait until I find some laying around....

[Conrad_R_Hoffman]

I did a page on the stuff some time back.

Enjoy,
Conrad

[Harold_V]

Thanks, Conrad. That's a great report.

I have a dozen or so ½" blanks, short (2½" long), purchased from eBay some time ago. All bear the notch, but how it relates to the etching on the tool is not consistent. Most of them are Haynes Stellite alloy 98M2, with the notch on the bottom as one reads the etching.

Two Vascoloy-Ramet TANTUNG-G pieces were included in the lot. Each has the familiar notch, but it appears on the top of the blank, not the bottom.

In both examples, one end is square cut, where the notch appears. The opposite end has the typical (although much less abrupt) taper, top to bottom, which indicates, at least to me, which face constitutes the top of the tool.

It's been years since I last experienced Stellite cutting tools. I recall having a parting tool that was far superior to common HSS.

Harold

[Rich_Carlstedt]

Thanks Conrad, I learned some new things tonight.
I didn't know you could get Stellite in square blanks.
I have an assortment of cast round Stellite rods ( 1/8 and 3/16) used for hardfacing diggiing equipment.
I also have stellite ground rod (.249) also used in auto feed welding.
I use them in my boring bars. they are wonderful, and far better than HS steel.
The cast rods are very rough and require some "rounding" to fit the boring bar holes.
The smooth .249 rod is marked " no 6 "
Not sure what that means ?
Rich

[fonzy]

If you are asking about using hard welding alloy deposits to build composite tools...sure I do often I use a HSS+cobalt alloy stick rod to build very tough form lathe tools, roughers, ect. At Warner & Swasey I often was called upon to make huge composite tools for the Lathe bed planners. [This was developed durring WWII, to save scarce tool steel materials[later to save scarce $] there are also stelite rods for Arc and TIG, I have not used them for cutting tools, but for building tooling jigs and fixtures with needed hard wear points and areas.