Hi Gary,

I would consider a collet system to hold your cutters. They are consistently concentric, they are also useful for holding small diameter work concentrically in the lathe instead of a chuck.. If you decide on collets I would suggest perhaps the ER25 range. You can get MT3 holders but you can also get collet chucks which bolt onto your lathe in place of the standard chuck. The holder and collets can also be used on the milling machine when you get one.

the beauty of the ER collets is that they can each hold a range of sizes, so a 5-6mm will hold that range, and if you have sequential collets they are capable of handling any size from the smallest to the largest collet size. Another advantage is that because of this range ability you can hold imperial as well as metric in the same collet.

As for cutter size, don't go too small or too large for a starter. Say 10mm. You can always use a flycutter for large areas.

What do others think ( ask 10 model engineers and you'll get 20 answers – it's the nature of the beast.)

Regards

Terry

Gary,

I would second Terry's advice, and add that the utility of the ER system is even greater than just holding milling cutters. You can hold material in a collet for turning; the advantages being that (a) it should give better concentricity than holding in a 3-jaw s/c chuck, and (b) as they grip the part all round, they are far less likely to cause damage as would the teeth of a chuck. For small-scale modelling work I use them almost exclusively.

David

Gary,

On the choice of collet chuck, be aware of this. A chuck on a morse taper shank will need to be held in with a drawbar (miling cutters do have a tendency to make cutters or chucks walk out of their locations*). The result of this is that there is no through bore, so you can only hold short lengths of material. The best ultimate position to work towards is this: a backplate fitting chuck for use on the lathe (such as **LINK**), and a morse taper (or R8, if that's what you end up with) chuck for the milling machine when you get one. Since the collets themselves are the expensive bit, this will give you the optimum utility for a moderate final outlay.

*This is why you should never use a drill chuck for milling. ER collets hold the cutters firmly enough to avoid this – but you must ensure you tighten them up properly.

David

Hi Gary,

I would personally go with the backplate for the lathe as David and I suggested earlier, and then later buy a taper collet chuck when you get the milling machine (I never call it a 'mill', although that is acceptable nowadays, but I think of a mill as a place where flour is made, or where steel is rolled ).

The versatility of these systems is the reason they are so popular. And you can buy as many or as few collets as you need, when you need. I had a basic set bought as a present some time ago and am perfectly happy with them.

Arc Eurotrade is a good place to get them (hear that Ketan, when do I get my commission? ). Seriously, as a satisfied customer I have always been happy with their quality and service.

Best regards and let us know how you get on,

Terry

Hi Andy,

I have never had to resort to 'heavy whacks' to remove my MT3 from my milling Machine.

T

A correction to my post of 15 October (third in the thread). Should read:

"… or 0.00078" if your leadscrew is 12 TPI."

Andy

So thats two cups of tea then

So am I, Michael, now you mention it.

Should be 16tpi, for an imperial leadscrew on a mini-lathe. The 0.00078" advance is right, though.

Memo to self: turn the computer off well before 00.40am, and go to bed.

Andy

Thanks Andy,

That explains it.

MichaelG.