jstinem wrote:Harold,
The endmills won't pull out of a Weldon holder. Remember I use a 17mm wrench on the nut and hold the nice fat Weldon holder or drill chuck in the other hand. The drawbar isn't loose by a long shot. The nut stays tight and the holder has to be tapped out of the taper to remove. I don't think that it's good idea to use endmills in holders other than the Weldon style on the Shoptask 2000 because the machine doesn't have a quill lock. The quill is small and the drawbar nut is larger in diameter than the quill. You can't use any sort box wrench or socket to hold the quill because you can't get it off when the drawbar is in place.
Joe
Thanks for the clarification, Joe. My mind was revolving around the use of collets, not end mill adapters. Seems many assume that a collet isn't adequate for the purpose, but they're wrong. It not only is adequate (with proper tightening), but can lend greater rigidity to the setup, to say nothing of gaining badly needed head space on small machines.
It should be kept in mind that industry ran with collets for many years with very acceptable results. That's not to diminish end mill adapters in any way, but they are not a requirement for manual machining---albeit a nice convenience in many circumstances.
I do have a question about your comment of the machine in question not having a quill lock. Is it safe to assume you're talking about a spindle brake instead? Not having a quill lock would be troublesome, regardless of the nature of the tool holder.
Harold