Which lathe milling options

I have reached the point where I want to start using my recently restored 4.25inch lathe to do some milling (it has a 2MT taper). So far I have done no milling on any lathe, ever. If you had a clean sheet, which chuck, collet combination would you choose to allow maximum flexibility, good availability, and modest price for using dovetail mills, T-slot, facing and end mills etc? An old vertical slide arrived today, and this weekend I will be tuning it up, but I will wait on the sound advice of those who have gone before to decide the best path to take.

I don't suppose it matters whether I am metric or imperial, but for the moment I am mostly the latter. I am equally happy to hear negative advice. In fact all advice welcome, including directing me to the website or up-to-date book that will explain all. I had hoped to have it all explained at the ME exhibition, but came away more confused than ever !

Thanks, Steve

Reply to
Steve
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I'd go for an ER collet chuck, as it could be used for holding cutters and also as a collet chuck for holding the workpiece. You also get metric & imperial for the same price as each collet has a 1mm range (so, for example, a 6-7mm collet will also hold 1/4"). Several of the ME suppliers now sell ER chucks mounted to a faceplate, or you could just get a collet chuck on a 2MT shank and make up a drawbar to hold it in (actually just a length of threaded bar). Of course if you did this the length of bar stock you could hold would be limited if you used it for workholding.

The only "negative" thing to say is don't hold cutters in 3-jaw chucks. It is quite common practice, but that doesn't make it right.

Regards

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Steele

Steve

A good place to start would be to buy the book "Milling Operations in the Lathe" by Tubal Cain. Amazon

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have 32 used copies from £3.37 or new at £5.56. Hope this helps.

--

Chris Edwards (in deepest Dorset) ..."There must be an easier way...!"

Reply to
christopher

Kevin,

Thanks for the recommendation. I have had a quick eBay search and seen ER16 ER20 ER25 ER32 and ER40 mentioned - presumably the number is something to do with the size ? Is one size more commonplace ? Are there collets for these that take milling cutters that are threaded for part of the shank ? Presumably that gives a much better location of the tool.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Ta Chris,

I had heard of this but thought it was another one of those books dating back to the 1950s and so might be good on the practice but out of date on modern types and availability. If its up to date then I will get hold of a copy and do my homework, thanks.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Yes, Steve, the number refers to the size. ER16 holds from 1-10mm, ER25 holds from 2-16mm, ER32 holds from 3-20mm and ER40 holds from

4-26mm. ER16 is too small for what you want, ER40 is far too big. So you will be looking at ER25 or 32. The largest size that you can get on a MT2 shank is ER25, but I think some of the faceplate mounted holders use ER32.

The ER collet is a colapsable collet that grips the shank of the cutter, if using a screwed shank cutter the screwed section should be pushed through the collet as far as possible so you grip on the parallel section. Screwed shank cutters are made to fit into the "autolock" type holders. From my experience these do not offer any improved grip, and are very limiting -in terms of where you grip the cutter and which cutters you can use.

Regards

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Steele

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