[Darth Yoda]

Hi guys. I have a quick question for you. First off, I saw a video of a guy cutting HSS steel with a carbide cutter to make a special shaped tool. The video was only about 10 seconds with no sound or anything. I remember the speeds and feed was VERY slow. I've looked on the net but haven't found any cutting data for HSS. So the question is, what feed and speed would you use to cut high speed steel blanks in order to make a specialty tools?

Thanks again guys. Everyone has been more than helpful!!

[victorofga]

shapeing would work better with wireedm..
some machine cuts with 0.1mm wire..

with wireedm you can cut profile on carbide insert too..

[Mcgyver]

anymore context? what was the tool - endmill?, was it making chips and looking like it was starting a fire? who was doing it (shade tree guy or nasa), how do you know it was hss? Its fairly common to make something from tool steel (ie drill rod, O1), machine it then heat treat it. HSS same thing is possible, although the heat treat part is not a diy thing. Point being, whether hss or tool steel it could have been/probably was annealed. Unless it was some special cermet type cutter and the machining looked more like hell and brimstone and 30k I can't see machining hss with anything short of an abrasive.

[Darth Yoda]

Thanks for the reply McGyver. What I saw was a tool in a mill being cut. Both the feed and speed were very slow. Chip were being made. It was under a topic I searched for gear making tools. The guy stated "This is the way I shape my tools." or something like that. You could tell it was a tooling blank like you use (and grind to shape) on a manual mill. He was using standard carbide endmill on a HSS blank to make involute tool cutter. The guy was DIY I think, reason being that context of the whole thread was along the lines of homemade gears and such.
The responses of the video were along the lines of 'I never thought of that ', "the easy way is usually the overlooked way' and stuff like that.

Anyway I would like to see that video again. It was really interesting.

[Mcgyver]

I'm guessing an involute approximation is being made similar to this approach GEAR CUTTING ?

I'd don't think carbide's going to stand up to hss. My money's on the cutter being made being annealed tool steel not HSS (but I'd didn't see the video) - that would be the overwhelming most common way to make a cutter for Ivan Law's gear tooth fly cutter technique. in the bright condition, i.e. drill rod, or gauge plate it would be difficult to tell the difference between hss & tool steel in a video .

if you find the clip again it would interesting to see it.

[Darth Yoda]

Been a while since this post has been replied to BUT I found a nice clip on youtube cutting HSS with Carbide. "Toolbit Development 3" by Tom's Techniques. Slide about 7/8ths thru and watch!