Thread: Aldi Specials...Die grinder & stuff

Check the size with a dial calliper or something...sometimes 6mm means 6.25mm, sometimes it means 6mm. If it says 6.00mm on the packet, I'd be pretty sure of that, otherwise it could be anyone's guess! (I think that 6mm would be less common than 6.25/ 1/4" anyway)

Don't mix them. You wouldn't trust a 6mm bit in a 1/4" router collet; and that's a machine which keeps some distance between the cutters and your fingers. A die grinder spins at similar speeds but is unguarded and hand held. OK; there is a big difference between razor sharp router bits and die grinding mounted points/grinding stones but burrs will still bite you.

Additionally the collet holding power of a $15 (+a gold coin) machine won't be in the same league as say Ingersoll Rand or Shinano; neither will it be as concentric nor as balanced.

My AEG die grinder of 20 years ago came with only a 1/4" collet and I could never get the cheap 6mm stuff to lock in tight enough. The dealer did however succeed in ordering a 6mm collet at quite a cost, but at least it came with its own spanner. My Bosch router of similar vintage sems to have enough adjustment to handle both sizes OK. Guess you will have to suck it and see. Check often that the 6mm shanks do not work their way out.
Combustor.

Thanks guys. I appreciate this is a cheap tool. That said, if 6mm and 1/4" are supposed to be different I won't risk it and will stick with 1/4" shanks.


Thx
Jon

Rule of thumb is .1mm =.004"
1/4 = 6.3mm ish
So .012" Difference
Which is a fair bit on a small diameter
Will

One tip which I read of once, and this was referring to milling cutters held in collets such as the ER series or 5C collets, was to spray the collet and shank of the cutter where it exited the collet with dychem layout dye (in a spray-pack). You did this after tightening the collet, and if the cutter began to move out, the clean section of the shank which had been masked from the dye by the collet would be plainly visible as nice shiny steel between 2 sections of blue. With a milling cutter doing a roughing pass, it might just save your bacon, but probably not if it was a finishing pass. The chances are though that cutter movement would be more likely with the bigger DOC of a roughing operation, than the light skim of most finishing cuts.
I imagine that with a die grinder, 1 or 2 mm of movement out of the collet would not be all that significant as far as the work-piece is concerned, but it should be plainly visible to the grinder operator, allowing you to either stop or re tighten the collet, - perhaps its food for thought.
Rob.