# R8 collet question



## Charley Davidson (Oct 9, 2013)

I ran into a situation where I couldn't hold a small end mill in any of my r8 collets so I see a potential problem down the road if that cutter is my only option. So would I be better off buying all the 1/32 increment collets and metric or go with an adapter to ER collets?


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## Dave Smith (Oct 9, 2013)

Charley--if you are talking about just a couple small endmills, what I would make is a small standard stub and drill the size of the endmill and put a setscrew where the flat of the endmill is .then you can use it in your standard r8 collet. no expense--just a little time---Dave


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## Charley Davidson (Oct 9, 2013)

Dave Smith said:


> Charley--if you are talking about just a couple small endmills, what I would make is a small standard stub and drill the size of the endmill and put a setscrew where the flat of the endmill is .then you can use it in your standard r8 collet. no expense--just a little time---Dave



What's the fun in that? Then I can't show off my new tool gloat.

Good idea but then I have to try & find a drill bit of that size.
It's never ending.


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## Dave Smith (Oct 9, 2013)

Charley Davidson said:


> What's the fun in that? Then I can't show off my new tool gloat.
> 
> Good idea but then I have to try & find a drill bit of that size.
> It's never ending.



I thought all machinists had every size drill bit there could be and many of them like me.  :thinking:


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## Charley Davidson (Oct 9, 2013)

Dave Smith said:


> I thought all machinists had every size drill bit there could be and many of them like me.  :thinking:



You will never find anywhere on this forum where I said I was a machinist :whistle:


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## Dave Smith (Oct 9, 2013)

Charley Davidson said:


> You will never find anywhere on this forum where I said I was a machinist :whistle:



Charley--I collected my thousands of drill bits before I bought any metal lathes or milling machines or metal shapers---now , you know that you are a machinist because we all belong to the hobby machinist forum, so you are a machinist!!!!--and I would bet a very good one  also. ---I am more like just a tinkerer with some neat old iron machines to play on--I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to help me with projects.  anyway--where did you get those little non standard size endmills--they must have the size somewhere on them to match a drill bit size---I really like the small collet holders and have some very nice Balas collet sets, but I need a Balas or sandvik c2 collet holder to fit in an r8 shank.--I don't think anyone on this site uses the Balas collets--Dave


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## pestilence (Oct 9, 2013)

I'm new to this game but I sure prefer swapping out ER-32 collets a lot better than messing around with the draw bar when I don't have to.  It drives me nuts when I realize I need to use a drill bit I don't have an ER-32 collet for and have to put the R8 drill chuck back in!


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## Charley Davidson (Oct 9, 2013)

Dave Smith said:


> anyway--where did you get those little non standard size endmills--they must have the size somewhere on them to match a drill bit size-----Dave



I got them out by a dumpster at Mahle when I was painting some fork lifts for them. There was a Craftsman work bench with the drawers in it sitting out there and asked if I could have it, the cutters all very tiny & brand new were in the drawers, got about 20 plus a bunch of other goodies.


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## Dave Smith (Oct 10, 2013)

Charley Davidson said:


> I got them out by a dumpster at Mahle when I was painting some fork lifts for them. There was a Craftsman work bench with the drawers in it sitting out there and asked if I could have it, the cutters all very tiny & brand new were in the drawers, got about 20 plus a bunch of other goodies.




Charley--wow that was sure a good find---are all the shanks all the same size or all different? well maybe you better get a small collet set if they are all different sized shanks. if they are all the same size shanks then I probably could send you a drill bit to drill a hole for them.  ----Dave


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## Charley Davidson (Oct 10, 2013)

All different sizes, They had several machining centers. I got a ton of nice stuff they were throwing away.


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## cwolfs69 (Oct 22, 2013)

actually the R-8 to ER32 collet adaptor might be a good choice. got one pretty reasonably from LMS (http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3615&category=) and was sure if i would use it much. it has been very handy for odd sizes because of the range of the ER collets. i have used it to mill with and it works great. i don't know if i would take very heavy cuts but it does work well.


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## pestilence (Oct 22, 2013)

cwolfs69 said:


> actually the R-8 to ER32 collet adaptor might be a good choice. got one pretty reasonably from LMS (http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3615&category=) and was sure if i would use it much. it has been very handy for odd sizes because of the range of the ER collets. i have used it to mill with and it works great. i don't know if i would take very heavy cuts but it does work well.



I've gotten away with 50 thousandths per pass milling a channel with an 11/16 HSS end mill through 4140 on my G0704 at 800 RPM using an R8 to ER-32 adapter.  I was feeding reasonably quickly too.


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## gtboomer (Oct 22, 2013)

Have to agree with Jono,  a split bushing is easy and works really well. The price is better to. IMHO.


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## cwolfs69 (Oct 23, 2013)

gtboomer said:


> Have to agree with Jono,  a split bushing is easy and works really well. The price is better to. IMHO.



the price is better for that particular size but must needs a separate bushing with each small change in size. is also subject to wear and tear. the key is if you already have the ER32 collets for another machine there would be no doubt cheaper in the long run. if you have to buy a collet each time then it probably needs some more evaluation on the cost basis.


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## george wilson (Nov 2, 2013)

Are those little end mills metric?


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## Charley Davidson (Nov 2, 2013)

george wilson said:


> Are those little end mills metric?



May be, I'll take a better look when at my shop


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## kd4gij (Nov 2, 2013)

Sounds like a good exscuse to buy more R8 collets to me. And pick up some er's while you are at it. It's all about new tools right?:roflmao:


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