Hi Tony, Yep, I use 0.4mm radius tip, Thanks for the suggestion though. I knew there was something not right with the machine when I put a HSS tool ground correctly (no radius) and tried that. Still had the heavy chattering. I removed the chuck and put a clarkson collet chuck in the spindle taper with a piece of 5/8 bar in it. No chatter what so ever. Guess it's the chuck then!
The main thing that threw me was the fact that the tools in the toolchanger are angled upwards towards the stock at about 3 degrees. Thinking that due to this, the tools will rub under the cutting edge, if set to the correct height so you can face to the middle of a bar the tool is not at a tangent to the centre if you know what I mean.
I have tried putting a plate under the toolchanger and adjusting the setscrew to get the tool height right and the tools level which is a fight between the drill tool center positions and the lathe tool positions.
I have found that in order to get the right positions and the tools level and the drill positions correct, I have run out of shimming clearance and all the tool positions are a bit low.
This has made me think that the toolchanger on the Orac is not designed specifically for the machine and is a bolt-on extra.
Not having any pics to look at I can only assume that the sloping tools situation is normal for this machine.
I must say that in using it, I have found no problem in cutting material.
A quick thanks for Marcel's info, I have checked for this and although the toolchange is dog slow, It stops solid on the ratchet with no play at all.
If anyone can give me more info on the toolchanger setup (or pics) I would be gratefull.
Kind Regards.
John