Bought some new tooling. Nothing actually to my boat, but I am still excited about it.
One is a combination left and right hand carbide insert turning/facing tool integrated into the tool holder. It is a lot more rigid than the shank tool holder and cemented carbide tooling we were using. I don't have inserts that are ideal grade and geometry for 17-4 stainless yet, but I have already pushed up speed and feed while increasing repeatability.
The other, I am really excited to try. It is a face grooving tool that is capable of profiling. It has a 1" shank that I will have to machine to fit our 5/8" tool holders and I might need to clearance it slightly. Inserts are $38 each and are double ended. Expensive, but they have the right geometry for 17-4 stainless compared to the zero rake form tools I have been grinding from cemented carbide inserts. The big thing is, off-hand grinding and constantly touching up my form tool is so time consuming and the other is I can now do in two setups what used to take me five.
