Help me find this tool…thingee
tufenhundel
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
Hoping for some help from the “machine inclinded”. I have a precision shaft that I’d like to mount a collet to hold router bits. This will eventually be a horizontal boring machine. Does anyone know a web source for this…uh…thing? I’ve Googled “collet”, “spindle”, “arbor”, etc with no luck. Thanks.
Replies
I Googled "precision shaft " and got numerous hits. Not sure if any of them are what you're looking for????
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Your description of what you have and what you need isn't complete enough to give a helpful answer.
Is the shaft just a length of ground bar stock, or does it have bearings and a collet or threading? What is the shaft's diameter and length, if it has threads, what size are they?
Are you looking for bearings, or bearings in a pillow block, a collet, couplings, drive pulleys?
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
Sorry John, I didn't think that info was pertinent. I have just a precision shaft. I can source everything else, bearings, pillow blocks, pulleys, etc., but the collet and holder. And if I need to put threads on the shaft, I could find that too.The shaft is 1" (or 3/4"), about 12" long.
In the machine trade, what you are looking for is called a toolholder, and includes all manner of collet holders, collet chucks, collets, drill chucks, and the like.
The problem is that, for strength and precision, almost all collets are mounted into sockets that are machined directly into the end of the arbor shaft, the way ordinary routers are made. Looking through the MSC catalog, I couldn't find any collet holder, in dozens of pages of collet assemblies, that could be simply attached to the end of a straight piece of shafting. The other problem you will run into is that any machine grade collet holder that can hold a 1/2 shank bit will probably cost at least $125.00.
You could machine the end of the shaft to accept a Jacobs style drill chuck but a drill chuck isn't as effective as a collet chuck for holding bits that will have side loads.
John White
Edited 2/6/2007 5:51 pm ET by JohnWW
Pick the collet and nut of your choice (say Freud or Porter Cable) and go visit a a machine shop with a drawing and a router.
You are basically talking about an axle which has been threaded for the nut and bored for the collet. Since the collet 'hole' has a funny taper to it, they'll have to measure it and do it on a latch, but it'll probably be a minimum charge situation.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=G0540
You trying to make this? For the money you can't beat it. The next step up is the Laguna/Robland mortiser which is basically the mortising table from a combo machine. It's around $700 and does come with the mortising chuck and coud easily be set up with a jackshaft instead a router. I've also converted handmills into slot mortisers and used a regular chuck but pinned it on the shaft to secure the Jacobs taper. You really aren't going to find anything cheaper in the long run than the G0540.
http://www.woodcentral.com/articles/reviews/articles_729.shtml
I have seen this Grizzly unit, but it was after I'd been collecting parts (off eBay) for a machine of my own. I am reinventing the wheel here, but the money has already been spent. It may just come down to the Grizzly unit...thanks for the links.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=46413&cat=1,330,49238&ap=1Maybe the above would work for you. Otherwise look for similar tool holders for milling machines. They are used as extensions in the tool holders to go into deep or awkward locations that the head of the milling machine would hit. If you succeed in making your own I'd be interested in seeing the end result posted.
QC:
That is the closet I've come so far. Thanks. This is actually my second attempt at a h. mortiser. The first one worked ok, but there were a few things that bugged me, so I am going refine it.
My first try:
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