Awl--
Ok, y'all know how you tighten the r8 collet/em in. Here's what happened:
Upon tightening sed r8/tool, the thread of the r8 popped out, the r8 collet body/em fell out, and the drawbar and the r8 thread/nut are now just spinning in the machine, with nothing to lock it so the drawbar/threaded pc can be removed!! So the hex draw bar/r8 nut just spins freely!
Cheap chinese collet. I never knew the threaded part was separate! Now, upon looking, in some r8's they are indeed one piece, in others the threaded insert is held by two set screws, and in others, the collet is just peened over a threaded insert.
This did not happen to me, but to my buddy across town, and I'm being commissioned to deal with this, as I can climb up and about the machine, and he can't.
So what's the prognosis here? One guy said to remove some plate or another up top, and we might be able to hacksaw the drawbar off below the hex, letting the draw bar/r8 nut fall down. True? Sumpn else?
giganto pita. tia.