I gather that modern carbide tips are far more able to withstand intermittent cuts. Like everything else, I suspect the quality and grade varies, and perhaps these were either, particularly hard and chip easily, sub-standard, el-cheapo's, a less popular grade perhaps for some specific purpose. (As have been mentioned.) Like several others here, I do have one tool-plus-tips, but it rarely sees the light of day. Heck, it was too expensive to actually USE !! However, when buying it, I was surprised at the variety of grades and types available, so suspect that (wrong grade) may be the problem. Alan Stepney http://www.alanstepney.info Model Engineering & steam engine information pages ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allen Messer" <al_messer@xxxxxxxxx> To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 1:29 AM Subject: [modeleng] Re: Replacable Tips Gentlemen, I think I read someplace, back in the Dark Ages, that Carbide tool bits would NOT stand up to intermittent cuts at all and would chip badly when used for such operations. Al Messer MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.