I do understand the scenario, Vic; standing there with a spanner in each hand and using a couple of your remaining fingers to hold the drill in place whilst you tighten it up, you may be onto a niche! If you have the chuck out of the machine with foresight you could sort it out in a bench vice so it frees up one hand and alot more room about you. Thats what i do sometimes, but then again it's not always out of the machine, is it? 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 02/04/2016 15:38:29

Would the imperial sizes help?

.

But thinking about the thread title "Wouldn't it be nice"

It would be even nicer if character 'Beckett' from the TV series 'Castle' came round and got good-n-dirty in my grubby workshop.

Nick

Edited By Nick_G on 02/04/2016 16:16:33

I'm pretty sure you could find a local engineers workshop to spark erode these collet to size. It'll probably cost around £15 for them to do it.

Michael W

I don't think anyone mentioned the possibility of using a ball bearing nut to help in closing.

Use er40 and stick a much lower number er collet holder in it. Might be ok in er32 as well but I would probably make the smaller one to go straight into the larger collet socket.

John

–

You could hold a cut down er16 extension collet holder in it – even trim the shank up to ensure it runs true with one size of collet in it. I didn't think I would use er16 much on mill but find I do as it gives a much better view of what is going on.

John

–

I just use a drill chuck on a 1/2" parallel shank in a 1/2" collet. The only time I use a drill in a collet is when I'm seriously restricted in height.

Edited By Peter Greene on 03/04/2016 01:36:18

Yes, it is.

1.5 thru' 8mm in 0.1mm increments. The biggest problem is storage/indexing – I don't trust the usual drill caddy at those increments.

Edited By Peter Greene on 03/04/2016 17:39:05