The Continuing Adventures of a Home Shop Machinist  
  • Starting to get boring
  • Setting the depth
We'll be boring a hole 0.635" diameter to a depth of 0.800".  The boring tool should also be honed to have near zero rake.  Make sure it's centered vertically in the hole, and make sure you've got enough clearance to run it in to full depth.  A lot of steel had to be ground away to make the boring tool so it's a bit flexible - take light cuts!

If you've got a calibrated stop for the saddle, run it out an inch and slide it up against the saddle.  Then bring the saddle in until the tool bit just clears the face of the work.  Lock the depth stop, make sure the saddle is snug up against it, then bring the tool bit in with the compound until it just starts to cut.  Finally, back off the stop by 0.795" - you'll take off the last .005 with a finish cut after you've roughed out the bore.