sieg mill: normal chuck or collet chuck?

[Ace ChandlerParticipant @acechandler49785]

hi folks, another noobie mill question.

Looking at the sieg x2, it looks like ARC Europe sell it with a normal drill chuck, do I need to look into purchasing a collet chuck too?

I didn't know if the normal drill chucks don't have tough enough bearings to cope with the sideways load when milling

I guess if the answer is 'no, you don't need one' – then it begs the question of at what point would I need to buy a collet chuck? e. g. are they only needed for heavier milling cuts?

Thank, ace

[Ace ChandlerParticipant @acechandler49785]

[Andy CarruthersParticipant @andycarruthers33275]

Collet chucks with many contact points are more secure and accurate ie tool holding is repeatable and centred whereas normal drill chuck with 3 contact points has more variation therefore less accurate

Personally I use a collet chuck in my mill, a small additional cost for significant benefits

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Ace drill chucks are not recomended for milling and I would always use a collet set to hold a cutter. You are likely to find that the cutter moves if held in a drill chuck and it may push back or pull out to ruin your job. You will also have to have a vice and clamps for holding the work piece. Talk to ARC they have some starter sets unless you gave some equipment already.

David

[jann westParticipant @jannwest71382]

Kinda depends on whether you want to mill or drill, doesn't it.

Drill chuck is adequate for drilling. Collets for any any all milling – if for no other reason than safety. But you can use a collet chuck to hold drills also, so there's that!

Unless your milling wood … you can probably do that with a drill chuck in reasonable safety – but I wouldn't.

[Neil LickfoldParticipant @neillickfold44316]

Basically drill chucks are for centre cutting tools like, drills, reamers and centre drills.

A collet chuck is a Milling cutter tool holding chuck. Collet chucks can hold milling cutters and other cutters as well, like slitting saws on an arbore etc. They can also hold very well drill bits and centre drills as well.

They both have their places. Collet chucks are a very good investment in the machine tool.

Neil

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

A drill chuck should only be used for holding drill bits, they are not suited for milling and as you have already said, cannot cope with side loads and will not produce accurate work.

I use a collet chuck on my mill and also collet adaptors. Both my miil and lathe have a 3MT spindle and they can be used on both machines.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 23/05/2019 08:52:53

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Like as not you will use both. Most of the time I mill and drill with a metric ER32 collet chuck. Three main exceptions:

1. Too often for comfort, Imperial drills aren't a natural fit to metric collets. Although Imperial collets will adjust to hold a metric drill and vice versa, it can be a faff.
2. If the job requires many holes to be drilled in different sizes, drills can be changed faster in a drill chuck because you don't have to swap collets.
3. The smallest ER32 collet can't grip less than 2mm, and many drill chucks can hold smaller. For very small drills, I grip a miniature drill chuck in the collet chuck.

With care it's possible to mill with a drilling chuck, but in my experience it's poo!

Dave

[Ace ChandlerParticipant @acechandler49785]

Great stuff everyone! . Thank you for all the background and explanations… what a great resource forum this is! everyone is super helpful!

Edited By Ace Chandler on 23/05/2019 11:22:12

[Author]

Posts