Thread: D1-6 ER40 collet chuck

Originally Posted by Ueee

Hi all,
I spent some time this arvo making up a mandrel and then some gear blanks for 2 missing gears for the Antracs gear train. It was soon evident that i really need a collet chuck for it.

I have a spare D1-6 backplate from the hydraulic chuck, and i was thinking about making a collet chuck simply by cutting a circle of plate, ideally 15mm+ thick and welding a piece of 60 or 70mm bar in the middle of it to bore and thread for the collets and nut. A register on the back and it can be bolted to the backplate like any chuck.

Has anyone got any better ideas or problems with the idea?

Cheers,
Ew

Hi Ew,
Little Machine Shop sells a similar unit for the mini lathe, so it should work fine. To make it extra strong, I would machine a shoulder about 12mm back on the bar and machine the plate to suit, then weld both sides. The 3mm gap would give extra support on the weld area, as it wouldn't be machined off.
Kryn

Why not just turn the nut from a piece of material large enough to allow for mounting to your backing plate, saves having to weld anything.

Should work - I do something similar myself. I can even donate a spare unused ER40 nut to the cause if you are short one. (At the time I needed to get one, Ebay only had pairs listed)

Michael

That is how I made mine Ueee...

Thanks guys, I just have to make sure my weld are good ones....

Michael, i have plenty of nuts, If i needed more i was going to try the bearing ones.

Of course i could try and find a bit of stock 200dia by 60mm thick but it would be a bit of a waste......not to mention expensive.

Ew

Ewan I would be worried about welding anything of this nature because of the stresses.
A collet chuck doesn't have to move much to be ruined.

Originally Posted by Bryan

Ewan I would be worried about welding anything of this nature because of the stresses.
A collet chuck doesn't have to move much to be ruined.

Welded and then machined Bryan, it should be fine. I'm not going to weld a bought chuck onto a plate of steel.....

Originally Posted by Ueee

Welded and then machined Bryan, it should be fine. I'm not going to weld a bought chuck onto a plate of steel.....

Of course. I thought it could move after machining. Bound to if I did it.

Originally Posted by Bryan

Of course. I thought it could move after machining. Bound to if I did it.

Dunno.....i'll find out i guess. As long as the bore and threads are the last thing i cut any movement from machining of the welds shouldn't matter.

Originally Posted by Ueee

Dunno.....i'll find out i guess. As long as the bore and threads are the last thing i cut any movement from machining of the welds shouldn't matter.

You should be fine. I've made bearing housings, shaft flanges etc from weldments. If you can, heat the thing as evenly as possible after welding them allow it to cool slowly. Then machine it.

I keep thinking on making one myself but I have a P-B EC collet setup for my Chipmaster so not sure how often I'd ever use a collet chuck on the big Monarch.

PDW

I started on the chuck today. Cut the body from a bit of plate that already had a hole in it and machined the center part up ready to be welded in. Just need to bore the hole to final size and then crank up the welder.

Ew

The chuck is now finished, i heated the whole thing up as much as i could and welded it up. Machined the OD and the backplate register and then bolted it up and bored the taper and threaded the nose. I don't know what sort of steel the bar is, but at a 3mm DOC the chips just would not break up.....

Cheers,
Ew

Originally Posted by Ueee

I started on the chuck today. Cut the body from a bit of plate that already had a hole in it and machined the center part up ready to be welded in. Just need to bore the hole to final size and then crank up the welder.

Ew

very nice Ew.
i like what you do.
Peter