where to buy a good open morse taper 4->3 sleeve

It is for the spindle of a Colchester bantam, reducing it from MT4 to MT3 and needs to be open endedto allow a drawbar to pass through. My current one is from RDG but I've discovered it isn't concentric so I'm loathed to chance RDG/ARC/Chronos. Bison seem to do them (**LINK**) but I'd rather order from the UK. I've tried cromwell, cutwel and MSCDirect and they don't have them on their websites, any idea who might sell a branded one?

I had a new Dormer sleeve for similar purpose and cut the end off with a disc grinder, worked fine

Rotagrip do the Bison ones.

Not noticed much in the way of runout of my ARC one.

However are you sure it's MT4 and not MT5 as it has a 1 1/4 bore spindle

Edited By JasonB on 16/07/2020 20:52:19

Thanks for the rota grip link. Definitely MT4.

I made my own out of mild steel when I first got my Bantam lathe, It's not difficult once you've got the right angles on the top slide. At least you know it will run true if you make it on the lathe you use it on, may not be suitable for collets though, I can confirm its MT4.

You really have some strange logic tarring us all with one brush!

ARCs comes from the same place/region/pot as MSC Direct. Cromwell probably from some other place. So by your logic, you should be loathed to buy from them too!

Ketan at ARC

Manual I have says its an MT4.

Not noticed much in the way of runout of my ARC one.

I’ll second that. Mine, from Arc, is spot on, too. No problem whatsoever.

Well you did not say of Mk1 or Mk2 or Mk3 so thought I would cover all options.

EDIT, just put a DTI on my MT4 spindle and got 0.0004", put the ARC sleeve in and could not see any difference.

Edited By JasonB on 17/07/2020 08:02:52

Well I would have absolutely no hesitation in buying the MT4/3 socket from Arc Euro. However before doing that perhaps it would be wise to clock the machine spindle to see if it has excessive run out, and/or play in the bearings.

Mad Mike beat me to it.

I was looking up the 4/3MT open sleeve in the Arc Euro catalogue. (120-010-00340 ) should be about £8.50 plus P&P.

Howard

Had a bit more time to clock it this afternoon, was trying to do it with the 4-jaw still in place this morning. Looks like the price has gone up since I bought mine, think it was one of teh first items I bought from ARC around 2007.

0.0002" is good enough for me, others may feel they need better.

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MadMike - the spindle is true and the OD of an MT4 dead centre i have also runs true when in the spindle. I even went as far as wrapping the MT4 dead centre shank with 2000 grit wet and dry and rotated it in the spindle bore to make sure there were no high spots.

Keton - I've bought from all 3 of those I named, and will continue to do so. The vast majority of purchases have met my expectations and in general that's what i have come to expect. I have also had cause to return a product each. In two of those cases (one of which was ARC - embarrassingly wonky T-nut and stud) the product should never have passed a basic visual inspection, the other (not ARC) would have been picked up if it had been checked for square at the factory (a center finding square, so it should have been). This was one of those rare occasions where i was prepared to pay a premium price for a branded product to give myself the best chance of getting something spot on first time. I didn't mean to cause offence, but i can only speak from my own experience. I've not bought from MSCDirect and my have wrongly assumed they sold branded equipment as well as unbranded import.

Fair enough Mark. Your logic understood and accepted.

Ketan at ARC

Hi

the usual cause of runout is a small speck of a foreign body between inside of mandrel and sleeve. If forced it has the nasty habit of literally welding itself to the surface. Careless storage or banging together causes dents or dinks. Touching the offending bit on the grinder will not spoil its intended use. Most sleeves are spot on having been produced by cnc machinery.
binthere and dunnit. Engineers