School me on collets please…

[Tifa 8572Participant @tifa857287838]

Well, I've finally gone and done it.

I've bought myself a Warco WM16b milling machine. (wooHooo!) It appears to be very well made, and everything seems to work quite nicely. Bit of a struggle getting it into the shed…but all sorted.

Anyway, I need to buy a 3MT collet chuck and collet set, along with a basic selection of cutters suitable for a newbie. But there's so much out there, I'm confusing mayself and appear to be going around in circles!

Can someone recommend something that will do the job, and where best to buy please? I've used ARC eurotrade for lathe odds and ends and found them to be pretty good.

Also, I need a good quality precision vice too…so if you have any pointers? That would be brilliant too!

Anything else I should add to the shopping list? …I've got a feeling I'm going to be living off beans for the next month or so….

Thanks.

[Tifa 8572Participant @tifa857287838]

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

In normal days I would say go to a show and get your tee nuts from Warco and the clamps and blocks from RDG for a small fraction of the set price.

The ARC 6 collet ER32 set is all you need for cutters

I like the Versatile vice, 80mm is normally big enough others prefer the Precision type.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If you want to stick with ARC then this would be a suitable collet chuck and basic range of 6 collets to start with for tool holding, if in the furure you want to hold work on the lathe and miil in collets then the next size up ER32 may be better.

6mm and 10mm 3-flute cutters should get you started then add to those as and when needed

80mm or 100mm Versatile vices are OK too.

Dti to set your vice and true and an edge finder(D) would be worth putting towards the top of a long list along with some bedtime reading

[Ian ParkinParticipant @ianparkin39383]

Tifa

i use a variety of collets er 11,16,20,32,40 in my mill but my goto ones are mt3 collets in the sizes i need to hold cutters..quick and easy to use and change sizes.

get the ones that suit your drawbar mine uses m12

 

https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Collets/Morse-Taper-Collets/MT3-Collets-Metric-Sizes

Edited By Ian Parkin on 14/05/2021 12:24:36

[IDPParticipant @idp]

Tifa

I have collet systems in ER40, C5 and Morse taper. By far the best in my experience for you would be 3 MT drawbar collets. The rationale is that with this type of collet there is minimal tool projection from the bottom of the quill, and hence less wobble, more support for the tool, there are fewer add on's which may introduce avoidable concentricity errors. And it's a cheap as chips.

The convention for draw bar threads is :~ 2 Morse Taper Metric = 10mm Imperial 3/8" Whit

3 Morse Taper Metric = 12mm, Imperial 3/8" Whit

Regards

IDP

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

There are a couple of downsides to using MT and R8 collets in the modern benchtop mills.

One is that you will end up with a lot of quill extension when using small cutters unless guards are removed.

The other is that as the ends of the quills are quite large dia it can make it very hard to see what you are doing with small tools or to get in close as clamps can get in the way

That's why I personally only tend to use them when I need the additional height.

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

Congratulations on your new mill

I bought the ER32 collets from Arc and have been very happy with them. My only other advice would be to avoid the cheap ones that are available on various sites.

David

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