Monarch 5c Collet Closer Nose Piece

[Jonathans]

My recently acquired Monarch 10EE came with an original Monarch 5C collet nose piece and drawbar closer.
I have never worked with collets. Is the selected collet inserted in the front of the closer and drawn tight by the drawbar, or does the nose remove and the collet inserted inside?
I see one substantial screw on the nose, but it won't budge. No idea what it is for unless the nose unscrews.

 

[Cal Haines]

The collet nose mounts just like a chuck. The screw that you mentioned secures the key that keeps the collet from rotating when you tighten the draw-tube. You just line up the key-way in the collet with the key in the collet nose and load the collet into the nose. Then you put the draw-tube in the back of the spindle, make sure it's engaging the threads on the end of the collet and turn the handwheel on the draw-tube until you just pull the collet up against the nose. Load your work piece into the collet and tighten the handwheel. You'll need to use the spindle lock on the left end of the headstock to lock the spindle while you tighten the draw-tube. You push in on the lock's knob and rotate it 90 degrees to lock the spindle. Don't forget to unlock the spindle before you turn it on! Newer machines have an interlock to keep you from turning the spindle on when it's locked, but none of the older machines have it. I have a plastic cup that lives on the spindle lock knob when it's unlocked. I move the cup to dangle from the headstock spindle direction switch any time that I have the spindle locked.

Cal

 

[Jonathans]

Thanks Cal. I did not know to turn the spindle lock knob to keep it locked!

 

[Jonathans]

Cal,
Do you think I should use Hardinge collets, or the newer spring collets. There's a lot of different ones out there and I'm not sure which ones minimize runout.

 

[Jonathans]

I'm learning how ignorant I am regarding this. Some of the collets I looked at are not for use with a draw bar but are collets that tighten under compression when the chuck is screwed in.

 

[Doubleeboy]

The collet nose mounts just like a chuck. The screw that you mentioned secures the key that keeps the collet from rotating when you tighten the draw-tube. You just line up the key-way in the collet with the key in the collet nose and load the collet into the nose. Then you put the draw-tube in the back of the spindle, make sure it's engaging the threads on the end of the collet and turn the handwheel on the draw-tube until you just pull the collet up against the nose. Load your work piece into the collet and tighten the handwheel. You'll need to use the spindle lock on the left end of the headstock to lock the spindle while you tighten the draw-tube. You push in on the lock's knob and rotate it 90 degrees to lock the spindle. Don't forget to unlock the spindle before you turn it on! Newer machines have an interlock to keep you from turning the spindle on when it's locked, but none of the older machines have it. I have a plastic cup that lives on the spindle lock knob when it's unlocked. I move the cup to dangle from the headstock spindle direction switch any time that I have the spindle locked.

Cal

I guess we should define older machines, my 1956 WiaD machine has the spindle lock interlock as does a friend of mines 1955 machine. For those who don't know and care to, you can spot the interlock by the wires running up to top of headstock by the rear of spindle. Nothing else electronic up there.

michael

 

[Cal Haines]

Cal,
Do you think I should use Hardinge collets, or the newer spring collets. There's a lot of different ones out there and I'm not sure which ones minimize runout.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the newer spring collets". Your collet nose takes a 5C collet and won't work with anything else. Hardinge makes them, but so do a lot of other companies. I have some import metric 5C collets that I bought from a seller on eBay 5 plus years back and they have no detectable runout. If you can find used Hardinge 5C or 5ST collets at a reasonable price, by all means buy them, but good quality import collets will serve you just as well. (A 5ST collet works in a 5C chuck; they are just a super high precision 5C collet).

Cal