Kress router collet removal

I use a forked (u-shaped with a handle)piece of soft aluminium about

0.25" thick which slides around the shaft of the router bit then "jacking it out with the collet nut" - use two or three if neccessary until the bit comes out completely.

I wouldn't use a drift - if you bend the shaft even slightly, you're going to have problems - vibration at 25K rpm is going to do some serious damage to the bit, the workpiece and potentially *you*

All the Kress units I use have a standard collet nut, just like the ER series. You just loosen the collet nut, and then continue to undo it to remove the collet. The is normally not a problem, so is your collet nut not allowing you to do that?

Does that imply that the collet should be fitted into the nut in the same way that an ER collet is. Is that Cliff's problem?

Mark Rand RTFM

I bet! So Cliff, you have to insert the collet into the nut. There is a groove in the collet that grips into the nut. Now the collet nut pulls out the collet and your problem is gone.

Nick

Most router collets (Ele, DeWalt, Trend, CMT etc) all work like ER collets. Snap the collet into the nut then screw onto the router, insert bit and tighten. To remove loosen nut with spanner, turn about two full turns until it tightens again then use spanner to break the grip of the collet in its taper.

If its not ejecting properly then the nut or collet are lekely to be worn.

Jason

The nut comes off, (and jacks out the bit,) but the collet stays jammed in the holder.

Cliff.

I have just tried Jason's suggestion and it worked a treat. I didn't know the collet was supposed to be held by a lip in the nut, and the instructions never made that clear, so I have lived with the problem for the four years since I bought the machine. Of course I had heard of ER collets on this newsgroup, but always assumed they were just another taper and never appreciated they had this feature to extract the collet. Thanks Jason.

Cliff.

It sounds like a faulty collet or really a 6mm one that is slightly too small for your tools.

Contact the maker/importer and see if they can help (preferably by replacement).

Hi Cliff, i have had the same problem with my Bosch router and it i

nearly always down to dust or resin getting into the collet housing. rub down with solvent usually clears the problem. On a similar vein, made a mild steel 8mm collet to take advantage of the cheep Chines carbide cutters coming onto the market, no problems to date, regard Dav

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Clipping into the nut clip is a pain on the Kress unit, much easier on the ER type which I think followed it. My problem is normally getting the collet back out of the nut once it is extracted :)

Well if I ever find out, I'll let you know, but don't hold your breath. It's taken me 4 or 5 years to find out how to extract the collet from machine, so you know I don't like to rush things :)

Cliff.

While I've got 3mm collets, the 6mm tends to stay, and I use stepped tools - saves having to take out the collet at all:)

The more annoying thing is that Kress have dropped the variable speed spindles altogether and only have the three single speed spindles. So if anybody knows of an alternative for the now unavailable 8000 to 24000 RPM unit I would be most grateful!

Kress is an alternative. :-) They still have it.

Nick

Nick - it looks like I needed your translation skills :) I had downloaded the manual on the new range, but was miss reading the no-load speed as they quote a single speed when loaded, unlike the data sheet on the older units which quoted the 'range under load' :) I have now found a better set of notes which actually show the speed pot - which looked like the cable release on the previous document. So now I need to get a price on the 800FME