5” Rotary Table/Tailstock/Chuck Kit Info/Questions

Ron - thanks for the idea of using finger collets. Must admit I’d not thought of using them at all. I’m wondering now whether to buy a set from Arc. Even when not using the R/T, wouldn’t they give an overall stiffer system for milling, ie a shorter column extension (as you point out), and removal of an interface between the collet chuck shaft and the machine taper? I bought the R8 ER25 holder when I got the SX2P only because I already had a set of ER25 collets.

Seems like you’ve got about half the backlash I have. I reckon if I used a ball thrust race I could get rid of quite a bit of backlash because I think quite a bit is resulting from the worm shaft end-float that I can’t fully eliminate due to the skew on the locking collar.

Howard - thanks for the tips on tailstock alignment. My son wants to try it out in that orientation on a part he’s planning on making, so we will need to align it for that.

I went for the small set of finger collets, 6, 10, 12 and 16mm although I have used all of them it's the 6 and 10mm that's gets used the most as they take the majority of my regularly used cutters.

I suppose one could argue that with just a small protrusion and a direct fit in the mills R8 taper they must be stiffer than a tool mounted in a chuck with a 40mm extension from the taper. However having said that the R8 collet chuck is quite a rigid bit of tooling and I suspect that in practice you would never see any difference between it and the finger collets.

Something that Jason has mentioned on occasion and which I have found to be true is when using the smaller cutters they get a bit lost under the spindle when mounted in a finger collet. With a small protusion and been so close to the spindle it can be difficult to see the cutter, especially on flat work down close to the mill table. You have to bend down to get the tool at eye level should you need to see/watch it or mount the work higher if possible, just something to be aware of.

Ron

Thanks Ron, yes I saw something about workpiece visibility with smaller cutters.

I'm mainly using 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12mm end mills. I think 4 mm might be a bit small to see under, so might go for 6, 8, 10 & 12.

Some years ago I purchased a 6" Shobha table and dividing set from Chronos. Never had the need to use the dividing plates till last month. The project was to use the Elliot 10m to shape 19 tooth x 14DP gears. It all went well fitting the dividing plate to the gear cutting jig to index for 19 teeth. The gear looked good but had some tooth spacing errors. After a few more attempts and eliminating any error sources the gears were not much better. On measuring the dividing plate the holes were on a constant radius with over 1mm variation between the hole spacing. Not a dividing plate but a steel disk with randomly spaced holes. Will go off and get a Vertex set as soon as the lock down in Melbourne ends. Kevin.