What Material for 5C collet Rack

Hui Clive

I would use MDF or better still a good chunk of dressed timber.

An array of drilled holes is easy to do, the only difficulty is that the top edge of the hole is likely to be chipped by the act of drilling or inserting tools in the holes.

If you have a wood router the trick is to use a 2.5 - 3mm radius cutter to round all the holes and the corners of the block. This will remove any chipped edges and stop the edges chipping when inserting and removing tools. These days small sets of cutters are very inexpensive.

5 minutes with the router and you have a nice looking and functional block. a couple of coats of polyurethane varnish will finish it off.

See two images below

Regards
John

I generally use plywood or any handy piece of timber i can lay my hands on -usually pine .

People have been using wood for tool holders for centuries without too much problem and i have never had a problem with it .

Ian.

I agree with XD; you could go all fancy and make something you want to be proud of but to be honest, I've made collet racks and tool holders just out of scrap soft wood and steel angle brackets, I'd rather use what's to hand than spend money on new materials. 

i'm not trying to win a prize for it, I just want a place to put my things.

In terms of tools to use, large drills or wood bits for small inserts and hole saws for large / or morse taper inserts. Just deburr it all by hand with a sharp blade.

(In my case I prefer kennedy red plastic handled blades from Cromwell, but it really doesn't matter.)

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 21/08/2017 20:52:16

Use some aluminium channel,the ali does not damage the collets and or contain any nasties which could corrode the collets, Bore the holes in the wide part of the channel,and sit it on the two shorter legs,have stored double angle collets for years without any damage or corrosion.

My ER collets are stored in metal drawers with thick foam inserts cut from polyurethane workshop floor mats, with punched holes for the collets, no corrosion or staining in 4 years.

My set of ER32 collets arrived in grease proof paper - or whatever the brown stuff is called, so a storage board was needed. I made mine from a piece of white 'plastic' food preparation board. Just drilled a series of holes slightly smaller than the max. diameter of the collet. The sides are tapered to give a slight angle for easy selection and they are screwed to the main board.

No chipping or oil soakage sith this material and it's easy to keep clean. Only possible downside is that I can't attach a size tag for the collets to the board - glue won't stick!

Dave
The Emerald Isle