Thread: WIP - Collet Chuck

Hi All,
Here are some pics of a ER40 collet chuck I am making. Enjoy.

80mm of 1045 round bar ready to be cut down to size.
Attachment 156848

Parting blade doing a great job (I found the faster I fed the better it went - with a slow spindle speed). Had to finish off with a hacksaw because the diameter of the stock didn't allow me to do the full cut.
Attachment 156849

After parting, facing and drilling.
Attachment 156850

After boring and threading - almost stuffed up the threading because the tool was moving (boy did I feel like a tool).
Attachment 156851

Completed the counter-bore.
Attachment 156852

The "chuck" fitted to the spindle.
Attachment 156853

Looking good Vernon, will be watching with interest.

Would it be possible to keep your pictures down in size a bit, they will be hard to watch for quite a few of the members as they are so big. If you could keep them down to 1024 pixels wide or even 800, it woiud be good.

If people have to scroll form side to side it makes it hard to see what's there.

Many thanks.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Would it be possible to keep your pictures down in size a bit....

Sorry, will do.

Great start Vernonv.

Finishing the parting with a hacksaw is a good idea anyway when you are using a center.

Stuart

Ok, some more progress.

Collet end bored to minimum diameter and faced.


Cutting the shoulder for the cap thread.


Finished cutting.


Dialling in the 8º angle. Using AutoCAD I worked out that 8º = 8 rotations of the compound slide for 139 divisions of my 0.001" dial gauge. I'm sure I could have done it mathematically, but I'm a visual person. I set the compound at approx 8º and then do fine adjustments to get the correct reading on the dial gauge of the appropriate movement of the compound.

8º internal taper cut.

Coming along nicely Vernon.

Dave

Hi Vernon,

Looking good, I've been thinking of something similar.. I'll be watching with interest.

I had to make some MT1 tapered tooling for the wood lathe last few days, (a little cup chuck if you must know ) and I'm sure you probably already know this trick, but I set the compound for the MT1 taper by setting up a part with the taper in the chuck and just adjust the compound around until it matches the sample taper as you wind it in and out. No measurement or calculations required.

I forget where I found the idea, but it was on-line somewhere.

Regards
Ray

Hi Ray,
I would have preferred to do it that way, but unfortunately I don't have anything to copy, so I didn't really have too many other options.

I put the thread on the chuck for the cap. It's supposed to be M50x1.5, but I can't cut metric threads, so I was going to cut it M50x17 TPI (pretty close to 1.5), but I found the lathe didn't have a 17 TPI, so opted for 16 TPI.


I had a "Oh #@&%" moment when I went to take the chuck off the spindle ... I hadn't allowed for any way to "grip" it, to undo it. So I ended up drilling a small hole in the side of the chuck and made a rough and ready "spanner".


Here is the start of the chuck cap.

Originally Posted by Vernonv

I had a "Oh #@&%" moment when I went to take the chuck off the spindle ... I hadn't allowed for any way to "grip" it, to undo it. So I ended up drilling a small hole in the side of the chuck and made a rough and ready "spanner".

What do you have in mind to allow you to take the chuck off in future?....surely you are not going to keep using that rough N ready spanner...but dont toss it out....you'll need it ...one day


and what was wrong with a pair if stillsons anyway.......lol

Originally Posted by eskimo

What do you have in mind to allow you to take the chuck off in future?....surely you are not going to keep using that rough N ready spanner...but dont toss it out....you'll need it ...one day

The "spanner" worked so well, I'll just keep using it ... I have since neatened it up a little and painted it.

Originally Posted by eskimo

and what was wrong with a pair if stillsons anyway.......lol

I tried both of my stillsons but was concerned that I might mar the chuck - I even put some aluminium sheet between the jaws and the chuck, but it wouldn't grip the chuck body.

Here is the chuck cap nut bored for the internal thread.


Here is the cap threaded.

Finally finished my collet chuck. Here I am cutting slots into the collet - 8 in total, 4 from each end. I did have pics of the collet being made, but my phone SD card died and took them with it.


Here are pics of the finished chuck, nut and collet with a 4 flute end mill fitted.

I didn't realize you where making the collet as well, how much runout did you end up with?
I think the CTC collets are only around $3.50 each to buy if you need more.

Dave

I will check the runout tomorrow, but I doubt it will be as good as a bought one. I wanted to try it out (I like to give things like this a go) and am happy enough with the results, but will probably just end up buying collets, as making them is a bit of a pain.