Cold rolled steel? | The Hobby-Machinist

Unfortunately as hobbyists we have to get what's available for a decent price.It would be nice to use , 12l14, but there are limits on cost, etc. I try to learn how to work with the material I can get, and this forum is useful for those ideas.

I understand this.
However many hobbyists are more concerned about appearance then function, hence the many "Can't get a good surface finish in steel" questions posted.

If I were making a hobby part and the most important consideration is surface finish I would happily pay more for a material that finishes nicely with the tooling and machines that I have to use.

Does this not make sense? On the face of it, it does make sense, but availability is a big issue with most folks, it seems; surely we could all order from a convenient online source, such as Mc Master Carr, but it gets pretty expensive. I am personally fortunate to have cleaned out all the remnants of stock when I sold my business and taken them home, my very own little scrap yard, and can still go back to my old shop and beg material when needed, in exchange for such as cutter sharpening, etc.
Most hobbyists are not so fortunate, and must, by necessity use what comes to hand; by experience, they will learn to deal with less than ideal materials, and learn which cutting tools and lubricants lead to an acceptable finish, and also, they need to learn the use of files and abrasive cloth; cutting tools are not the panacea when it comes to finish.
Another thing that I have harped on several times previously is the choice of carbide inserts that hobbyists seem to gravitate to for reasons of economy, handiness, and utility; I am speaking of the parallelogram shaped (negative rake) inserts, they do not lend themselves to nice finishes to say the least, fine for roughing on a machine with sufficient power to effectively use them, machines, for the most part the hobbyist does not possess. A free cutting (positive rake) insert goes a long way to solving finish quality problems. I use nearly all TPG (positive rake) 300 and 400 series inserts for my lathe work except for work done on my 9" Monarch, where I use all HSS tools.

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