Originally Posted by
38-55
Hey old tool Snipper,
Practice will definitely make you better on your lathe.. When I started out I had a devil of a time grinding hss tool bits.. made them to the specs in the pictures and all.. nothing seemed to work.. So I just 'free handed' what I thought should work and it did.. Went and re-read my 'how to run a lathe' book for the umpteenth time and finally learned that the path to progress was to heavy up the feed ( cut) and slow the speed ( depth of cut per revolution ).. It's been working ever since..
Another thing that may help out is after you grind a bit.. touch it up with a stone so it's really sharp..
Good luck ( and keep practicing )
Stay safe
Calvin
PS while is may piss of some purists... running machine tools is alot like sports.. there is alot of 'feel' involved.. A gentle touch is a good thing to have for machine work..