mt3 or r8

[mick70Participant @mick70]

had txt from friend whos company have bought several smaller ones and are disposing of some tools.

there are 2 benchtop milling machines not sure of make yet, one is mt3 other is r8.

they will be sold for scrap wt without motors to whoever gets their name pulled from hat.

he is sparky that be removing motors so if get one of millers he will make sure i get right motor with it.

question is do i ask for mt3 or r8?

he can only put his name down for one

[mick70Participant @mick70]

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

R8.

Martin.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

R8.

MichaelG.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

R8. MT3 is a self holding taper so can take rather more thumping to release and, due to the self holding nature, tooling rip is less for any given drawbar torque. R8 also has more professional accessories around.

Clive

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

My mill tooling is all MT3 – wish it was R8!

Steve

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

R8 no question. Good luck JD

[Enough!Participant @enough]

My mill started life as MT3. After a year or two, the local supplier came up with an R8 retrofit kit which I fitted and haven't looked back.

No way would I go back to MT3.

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

I agree, go for the R8.

Thor

[mick70Participant @mick70]

cheers for that r8 it is.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Could I perhaps suggest a thought for poor old MT3?

Ok, I know I'm a lone wolf crying in the wilderness, but when I bought my milling machine, it had the option of either MT3 or something else, possibly R8. I chose MT3 because it matched the lathe which in turn meant that the MT3 direct collets I was in the process of buying would fit both machines.

I must say that I'm no expert having never used or seen R8 so it may be that the advantages of R8 outweigh any advantages of compatibility.

Just a though.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

R8 is the definite one to go for.

Tony

[VicParticipant @vic]

Posted by Peter G. Shaw on 22/03/2015 11:22:11:

Could I perhaps suggest a thought for poor old MT3?

Ok, I know I'm a lone wolf crying in the wilderness, but when I bought my milling machine, it had the option of either MT3 or something else, possibly R8. I chose MT3 because it matched the lathe which in turn meant that the MT3 direct collets I was in the process of buying would fit both machines.

I must say that I'm no expert having never used or seen R8 so it may be that the advantages of R8 outweigh any advantages of compatibility.

Just a though.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

Agreed Peter,

I've happily been using my MT3 mill since I bought it. Tapping the collets out isn't an issue provided you are capable of using a copper hammer. Having said that I made a self extracting drawbar just just out of interest so no hammer needed these days. I also like to use a ER32 collet chuck quite a bit so spindle taper is immaterial in this case. What is useful is being able to use MT drills straight in the quill. MT drills are often available quite cheaply at the shows. Maybe it's me but MT stuff seemed to be cheaper than R8 when I was setting up my workshop. Compatibility with my Lathe is an added bonus.

[CotswoldsPhilParticipant @cotswoldsphil]

I've owned an R8 spindle Mill Drill (Korean) for about 30 years. 5* R8 Imperial Collets provide most of my end-mill / tool holding needs – 4 more to go metric, about £20. To extract is simply a 1/4 turn on the draw-bar nut, a light tap with the ring end of the 3/4 AF spanner (already in your hand) on the button at the top of the draw-bar and the collet is free, but retained ready to remove the cutter. No need for a collet chuck which saves valuable head-room, on a small mill. The R8 collets appear to hold end-mills very well.

I'm very happy with R8 tooling.

Regards

Phil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

R8 is certainly less hassle, although if you make a self-ejecting drawbar the gains aren't huge, ad some R8 tooling is more expensive.

If you are able to find out more about the machines you might decide things like table travel, head travel, speeds. or make might be more important to you.

Whichever way it goes, I hope you get lucky!

Neil

[VicParticipant @vic]

Just try and get the one in the best condition …

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Vic on 22/03/2015 16:26:05:

Just try and get the one in the best condition …

.

… Which will probably be the R8, because they don't get hit so often

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> Which will probably be the R8, because they don't get hit so often

Unless it gets more use and is worn out

Neil

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

My new Mill is R8 and my old Mill is MT3. I really didn't notice to be honest that I was being disadvantaged with a MT3 Mill. I just put an ER40 collett chuck in there and only very rarely did I need to remove it. Everything I needed to use just fit in the chuck and off I went.

A friend of mine has all his tooling set up in ER11 colletts with 10mm shanks and every one of his Mills have 10mm colletts in them.Simple and no messing about. Of course this won't work for everybody.

The R8 just comes with the new machine so all I will be doing is buying a new ER40/R8 chuck. However, I will also be buying some of those nice looking R8 tools that I salivate over (too much information?) when I visit one of my favourite tooling suppliers. It won't help me do better work but it will certainly damage my wallet!

graham.

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

See, here you go, looking for tooling like this

No spanners needed you see and I can always find my hands, well almost always

graham.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

If I can make a suggestion, don't buy a collet chuck but buy R8 collets. They are quite inexpensive, grip like b*******ry, easy to eject and save a couple of inches height.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I first started using collets on my old Elliott mill because I couldn't afford a Clarkson autolock chuck at the time. In all honesty Z height was never an issue for milling on the Elliott and is still not an issue on my smaller VMC. The only time it does come into play is for drilling so I've got a good stock of stub drills now. It's always surprised me how many folks compromise the rigidity of their machines by moving the quill instead of the knee.

Good point about the use of the two machines Neil, the R8 could be well be the more used machine unless they've both been fitted with chucks.

[Peter BuxtonParticipant @peterbuxton35723]

This has been exceptionally useful to myself. I am looking to buy a small milling machine.

I was also stumped by the R8 and MT3 conundrum.

If it's not too much trouble, could you please give me some information about the best sites to find the best deals on R8 collets? I have tried looking around but to be honest, I get lost on the Internet. I have to admit, the information available is astounding, but trying to find what you want can (for me) be nightmarish.

I am looking to buy a milling machine £600 budget + 100 to collect or ship, r8 collets, and a milling vice. I would prefer secondhand HELP.

Regards

Peter

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

R8 was designed by Bridgeport as a milling machine collet taper. As it is used on industrial machines there is plenty of industrial quality collets and other tooling available often reasonably priced second hand. The increasing popularity on hobby machines has also brought plenty of R8 tooling at hobby prices. The usual hobby suppliers have quite a lot of tooling for R8. Remember that the collets are only for the size of shank that will be stamped on them, they are not suitable for any other size so if you want to use metric and imperial cutters you will need the correct collets for each shank size. A full set of collets will have a lot of sizes you may never use, I would get the sizes for the cutter shank sizes you intend to use which will keep the collet count and cost down. An ER collet chuck is most useful as a set of collets will cover all sizes in the range of the chuck which can be useful if you want to drill on your mill. The downside of an ER or drill chuck can be the loss of tool to table height but this is often not an issue depending on what you do. Morse taper adaptors are available but as the slot for the drift is unavailable then ejecting a drill means removing the adaptor which for a one off use is bearable but if you wanted to keep changing a drill you would rapidly lose the will to live. My mill is R8 and although I have a collection of collets the ER chuck is a near permanent fixture.

Mike

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