Chip Breaker for a Diamond Tool Holders®

[rgsparber]

My favorite lathe attachments are my left hand and right hand Diamond Tool Holders®. They use High Speed Steel which is very easy to sharpen. Yet there was one really annoying problem: no chip breakers. When doing heavy cuts, the swarf would either shoot off in long coils or ball up around the cutter. I’ve been searching for a chip breaker for a few years.

Well, today might be my lucky day. I may have stumbled into a design that actually works. This chip breaker wraps around the back side of the cutter rather than requiring a second grind which greatly weakens the point.

If you are interested, please see this short article which also contains URLs to YouTube videos demonstrating the tool holder both without and with the chip breaker.

http://rick.sparber.org/ttcb.pdf

If you own a Diamond Tool Holder, I hope you make one of these chip breakers and let us all know how it works under various conditions.

Rick