Dore Westbury Collets

I've just bought a Dore Westbury MK1 Milling machine. I want to buy some tooling for it. In particular I want a set of Collets. I'm struggling to work out what sort is compatible for it. Any help would be much appreciated.

Paul

If it was me,I'd go for one of these http ://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/2MT-SHANK-COLLET-CHUCK-ER32-7445.html

and choose 4 or 6 common sized collets to get you going. (?)

My 2d

John

The machine takes Myford standard collets although I think you may be able to use two morse draw bar collets.

The standard internal spindle taper for Dore Westbury is 2 Morse Taper, so any tooling for that will do, plus a drawbar of course to match the tooling.   If the machine has been built to design spec. there will be a Myford size threaded nose on the spindle end which can be used to hold a collet chuck.

From the simple Morse Taper collets, size to suit your cutters, to more expensive ER collet holder and collets, again to suit your tooling, but ER have a tolerance on size. See John Kennedy's link for a suitable ER collet holder.

The usual recommendation is to start off simple, with plain 2MT collets, then upgrade if necessary. It depends what range of cutter sizes you are going to use.

Choice of collets is very much a personal choice, so there will probably be a wealth of conflicting recommendations!

Edited By Robbo on 25/11/2014 09:49:44

hi paul,

i also have a Mk1 Dore Westbury (that i would never part with and serves me very well).

the Myford collets fit the thread on the nose. at one time the Myford collets were extremely popular, and of course can be used on a Myford lathe as well. they have the advantage of being very 'compact'. unfortunately all my collets are imperial and it is getting increasing difficult to find imperial endmills without paying a premium these days.

i also have a special holder for the Dore Westbury that takes disposable carbide cutters.

i would be very interested to know if spares for the Dore Westbury are still available and whether anyone has come up with a better arrangement of securing the handles - every now and then my handles lock up solid. anyone who has had this problem with a Mk 1 Dore Westbury will know why and how annoying it can be!

cheers,

julian

You can buy MT2 drawbar collets from several suppliers such as Arc and Chronos. A bit of studding makes a perfect drawbar. Using these collets means you get more working height and rigidity than using a collet chuck. Maximum size though is 1/2 inch, 12 or 13 mm. Both metric and imperial sizes are available. You only need a few sizes to suit standard cutter shanks.

Myford collets are nice if you can get them, I have a set of both metric and imperial, but these days they are like hen's teeth.

On mine I have an ER collet chuck screwed on to the Myford thread, not the same as mine but available here **LINK** no doubt there are others available.

That posted link is interesting ..did I read correctly that they charge less for the set of collets with the chuck than for the collets alone?

That seems to be the case, if you buy collets (£109.21) and chuck (£40.80) separately it's close to £150.00, now who'd do that!

Bob

hi paul i also have a dore westbury mk1 and I would check whatever collet system you choose to buy as regards the thread size for the drawbar. as most seem to be three eighth whit or ten mill ....its just that the hole through the spindle is drilled for five sixteenths clearance and therefore wont take either of the above sizes in from the top. you may have to drill a deeper hole in the collet and tap for this smaller size or make a drawbar that enters the spindle from below with the larger standard thread, and screw the collet or whatever onto it and secure at the top .if that makes any sense at all..regards kev

It may be possible to make an adapter to screw into the top section of the taper with a short 5/16 thread in the end.

Mines a later model and will take a 3/8 or 10mm draw bar but has a screw on ER32 chuck fitted and has not been off in last 6 years or so as I use it for drills and milling cutters.

Bob

MT2 Collets here if it's of use.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Collets/Morse-Taper-Collets/Morse-Taper-Collets---METRIC

Regarding the hole in the spindle, it's not hardened to you can easily drill it out to 10mm and use a larger drawbar.

Hi Paul, you may well have a problem with drilling out the spindle, its not hardened (well mine isnt) but from memory it is around 12" - 14" long which I think may cause a few problems in opening up a hole this long.

You can as Bob suggests make adaptors to fit in the rear of your collets, male 3/8" thread one end and female 5/16" on the other end, or the metric equivalent. This is what I have done on all my collets and as I only use them in the DW, I have permanantly secured then to the collet with Loctite.

Phil

I understood D-W mills were all home made, or at least home-finished. Were they supplied with machined spindles?

Actually looking HERE it appears the spindle bore may have been machined. Surely there must be quite risk of getting a badly finished one?

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 26/11/2014 21:57:32

Neil, The DWs were supplied with all the major machining aleady carried out. Although in my case I only had a ML2 at the time and that lathe with it's vertical slide were simple not rigid enough to cut the rack in the quill and I had to sub that maching out. I think from memory it cost me £5, I wonder how much that would be today?

Strangely the quill is the one thing that I can't see in the photos in your link, mine was supplied as a piece of thick walled tube with a ground finish on the outside and it was intended for the purchaser to bore the inside for the bearings and cut the rack on the outside.

Even after 30+ years I am very pleased with my machine and appreciate how much the building of it taught me about what can be done by the amateur.

Phil

I had one, cracking little machine, bought it like most in kit form but saved up and bought it in two big lumps so not having to wait about.

There was an option to buy the quill with the rack cut and also the column with the raising thread also cut.

I chose to do this as I wanted to be a fast build as I needed the machines as opposed to it being a 'project'

Spindle was supplied with thru hole and the taper finished, they also supplied a MT 2 plug to put in this so you could then turn the rest of the spindle between centres to get it bang on. If you returned the plug you got a refund, I kept mine and fitted a centre drill to it for use in the ML7 tailstock.

Oh happy days

Edited By John Stevenson on 27/11/2014 09:16:20

I guessed the bit at the left of this pic was the spindle 'blank',

Neil

I use an ER16 2 morse collet holder with mine - mostly to give good visual clearance for smaller things and cutters. I also use a set of ArcEuro morse taper collets for bigger cutters. It's fun buying some all thread to suite the collets and then drilling and taping a short length to suit the DW draw bar and loctiting it in.

My boring head fits on the myford spindle nose. I also have some carbide tipped screw fitting face cutters that will have an adapter made for them at some point. I tend to do things like that when I need them.

Adding a bit more - my dore dividing head also has a myford spindle nose so as I use a boxford I have a 3morse to myford adapter for that.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 05/06/2015 15:27:02

Edited By John W1 on 05/06/2015 15:28:32