Made a DA collet organizer today

Just a comment. I run my machines at lower RPM and way more feed.

Looks good. I think it was about a year ago you wondered if a CNC was something worth having and maybe you wouldn't use it enough to be worthwhile. What do you think now?

I could not do it due to the aluminum plate flexing. Otherwise I would too.

This is one of the most exciting journeys of my life. Finally I can use my computer and design skills in machining. I am very happy.

If you decide to re-visit the collet plate in the future, instead of a twist dril, try a trepan drill.

Not sure if that's what they are really called, but I've been using them for years and calling them that, so I'll stick with it.

What is it, you ask?

Good question...

...get a chunk of O-1 or A-2 or D-2 or some other flame hardenable tool steel of a size that you have a collet for, say 1/2" dia or so...

...Turn one end to the size of hole you wish to create and drill a hole about .100" to .125" UNDER that size...feel free to bore it iif you like, but it's not needed to do so.

...Fire up the torch and harden the end you just worked on.

...Now, to the grinder...Grind half of the end you just hardened away. Kinda like a tube that you sliced lengthwise. Now grind some clearance behind ONE edge...just like a drill bit, but with just one flute.

If you want to get fancy, and you have a LOT of holes to drill, you can put a spring loaded plunger in the center to pop the slug out.

play with it to learn just what angle you need and how deep to make it, but it is a very useful little drill for something like your collet holder.

Mike

--I use the Rotabroach brand; there's a nice little kit you can get for not too much dough.

By the way, I made a similar storage thing for ER 16 collets last night. This time I bored each hole with a small end mill, like Jon suggested. It worked like a charm, actually a very fast and gentle process. No mess with stringy chips. Just 12 minutes machining time.

It was a grid of 0.64" ID holes, 3 by 5 holes, for the total of 15 holes.

Here's the code:

O100 sub # = #1 # = #2 # = #3

# = 0.2310 # = 10 # = 0.64

O call [#] [#] [#] [-1/8-0.02] [#/2] [#] [#] O100 endsub

S1 M3 M8

O call [0.5] [0.5] [0.9] [0.9] [5] [3] [0.02] [100]

M2

Nice job.

One thing you might consider with this kind of project is your choice of tool. A fly cutter or hole saw turn less material into chips, so therfore it tends to go faster and you have less of a job cleaning up. Also, since less pressure is required your bending problem would be less of an issue.

Roger Shoaf

Yep, I will just bore holes with a smaller endmill, from now on. Did that for yet another collet set (ER16), it was easy and pleasant and fast.