As is usual for a novice, I'm having some difficulty dialling in parting operations on the TCL 160 lathe.

I'm using the original Boxford parting tool, which uses a GFN 1.6 indexable tip.

At the moment, it has an IC354 tip installed, as that was what was specified by Boxford, but I see from the ISCAR site that this is not suitable to non-ferrous metals, so have ordered some IC20 tips as replacements.

Looking at the specs from ISCAR for the IC20, it says a cutting speed for wrought curable aluminium, which I believe matches 6082T6, is 252-670 m/min.

I'm trying to part washers from a 16mm diameter bar, so that's a circumference of 16mm x 3.141 = 50.25mm, or 0.05m.

At their slowest speed of 252m/min, this bar would have to rotate at around 5000rpm. At the high end, it's over 13,000rpm.

Is my maths correct, and how does that stack up to the usual advice of "slow and easy" when parting ? Is it just that they expect them to be used with multi-kW machines ?

Adrian.