New member would like some milling machine advice.

[Ischgl99]

I didn’t think of drills, that would certainly make things difficult with R8 collets. I use a drill chuck for drills, but I have been thinking of getting an ER chuck for the mill since I have had a few drill bits slip in the drill chuck. I should give that a try for the end mills too, maybe I’ll like that better as well.

 

[rronald]

The PM ER40 holder seems pretty good. And they include an ER40 wrench for the ER40 nut. The only other thing needed is a really big wrench for the ER40 body. I'm not sure how big it is...but I think it's around 2".

I have an 18" crescent wrench that works, but it's huge and heavy. So, one of my first projects (now that I have the power feeds and DRO almost done) will be to make a fixed aluminum wrench to fit the collet. It's so big that I'm sure there's enough bearing surface that aluminum will be sufficient and my arm will appreciate the lighter weight.

 

[ad701xx]

I have a 6 inch PM ultra precision vise. The size is nice for clamping, however, as I have aged I can no longer bench press what I once could. This vise comes in at about 90-100 pounds and it is getting difficult to lift on to the table! https://www.precisionmatthews.com/s...tra-high-precision-milling-vise-wswivel-base/

I hear you Dave. While cleaning out and rearranging my garage I found my old white board that I was keeping track of my lifting routine. My bench press was up to 3 reps of 325 lbs. I dusted off my Olympic weight set and I'm beginning to lift again since I'm now retired. It's really embarrasing at what weight I'm starting out with.

Dave

 

[B2]

@rrhoton

So, one of my first projects (now that I have the power feeds and DRO almost done) will be to make a fixed aluminum wrench to fit the collet.

So, you might like to make one sort of like the one I have. The one I have is out of Al, but it seems to hold up pretty well. I even drew an approximate sketch to go with the picture. @ptrotter even made one somewhat like my design by 3-D printing. The holes for the spine tabs can be made via drilling, which makes it a lot simpler to machine.

My 940M does not have a spindle brake, so it is difficult to get a collet out of the spindle with having a spline/quill wrench. There is a place to buy them, but not like mine. The mills should come with one, but mine did not. I like mine over what one can usually buy because it is thicker. Or you can make one. I will post the dimensions from a drawing I made. I was going to make one until I got the following.

There are some other suggestions for purchases listed on the above thread.

Dave

 

[dabear3428]

I bought a PM-833TV a couple of months ago and will offer a different point of view on the R8 collet set.

I bought one. And then I returned it and bought an ER40 collet.

My rationale is that I tend to buy metric cutters. And R8 collets have a very limited grip range. So, when you have a set of R8 collets and want to use a 12mm cutter.....or a 4mm...or a 6mm, you're out of luck. An R8 collet set with a few collets doesn't even come close to clamping all the possible sizes in the 0 to 1" range. Conversely, a good metric ER40 set will clamp any diameter between zero (or thereabouts) up to 1". Much more flexible.

And, an ER-40 holder can be opened or closed with wrenches right in front of you. You don't have to reach to the top of the machine and you don't have to remove/inset the collets from the spindle......you just loosen the nut and swap the collets. Seems far easier to me.

Finally, I already had an ER-40 collet set up (for my lathe). So buying a holder was my only expense to be able to clamp any diameter up to an inch. Far less money than the 100s of R8 collets you would need to cover every diameter up to an inch (An R8 is only supposed to clamp a range of .002 to .005" depending on who you ask)..

Downside on a smaller mill would be that the ER40 holder consumes a couple of inches of vertical travel over using an R8 directly.

small mill here and R8 collets are the way to go for me, i have them in the common metric and imp sizes and it is easier to keep up with 1 wrenche vs the 3 i would need for an er setup. i use a battery powered ratchet for my drawbar and with it i do not need to fix the spindle just grab it with my hand and the impact from the ratchet is enough to break it lose / tighten it.