drill tooling for my mill

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Ian_Timshel
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Location: Manitoba, Canada
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drill tooling for my mill

Post by Ian_Timshel »

Hi all.
I'm pretty wet behind the ears when it comes to this sport but my lathe isn't lying to me nearly as often as it was a few years ago. I've got a mill drill that I now have a vice for. It came (used) with an "Osborne" tool holder which seems to be very limited in choice for tooling. I mostly scan the KBC tools catalogue when I need some ideas on what's available.

I have a little extra money for tooling right now,(quick before it burns a hole!) and I want to be able to hold drills in the mill. I have two .5" chucks. One I use on the lathe in a morse #3 taper in the tailstock and one in the drill press.

I have looked at the R8 adaptors. Many seem to project quite a ways out of the quill which can't be the best idea. I don't expect this mill to perform like one with a big price tag but I don't want to aggravate it's short comings either.

Ok... enough long windedness. What does the wisdom of the board recommend to hold drills in an R8 quill? I'm buying an end mill holder so I can use my weldon shank mills as well..

I do mostly small work but it sure would be nice to use the mill table for hole placement.

Cheers and thanks in advance! Ian.

Hopefully the links below will serve as an introduction.

Starting at the bottom of this page is a brief discription of a ltd Stirling engine of my construciton. It was my first working model.
http://ca.geocities.com/itschaotic/david1.html

Here is posted pictures of the telescope I finished this past May.
http://ca.geocities.com/itschaotic/scope/

www.timshels.com is my lame first html attempts for work.
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Ray_S
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Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 6:57 pm
Location: North Central Arkansas

Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by Ray_S »

About all you really need is a chuck with a straight shank that will fit into what ever collet size you have. You can get them in 1/2 or 3/4 inch. If they won't fit what you have you can turn the shank down to the size you need.
PeteM

Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by PeteM »

Several options come to mind:

- R8 to jacobs taper (JT) arbors are available. Your chucks probably take such a taper and would be labelled as such.

- Personally, I like having things fit a 1/2" or larger collet. With just one R8 collet (1/2") you can hold silver deming drills for larger than 1/2" and a straight (1/2") to JT arbor to hold your chuck. This makes changing things easier, since 1/2" end mills also fit right in. You can also use this with a small boring head.

- Others, especially those with more HP than the typically mill-drill, will suggest a larger straight arbor (5/8, 3/4, 1" etc.) as a sort of standard. The advantage is it's more rigid. I'm gradually moving to 3/4" arbors; you might want to start larger as well. That said, 1/2" arbors have been fine with the mostly light cuts I end up taking.

- As far as the collets go, you can use R8 collets or a collet holding system (ER, DA etc.). Be advised that some collets, such as most DA (double angle) types are meant for drills, not end mills. Pull-out is a possibility with end mills. ER collets, to my knowledge, work fine for both mills and drills.

- If you don't have a good chuck, you'll eventually want one. A like-new but used Jacobs "Super Chuck" is one good all-around choice. A "16N" or "18N" will give you 5/8 or 3/4" capacity, respectively. I have a "20N" with 1" capacity for some work, but it's really too large for a mill drill. A large Albrecht chuck is even nicer, but much more expensive even used, and only good in forward rotation. I do like them for precision drilling.

- If you contemplate using Morse taper drills, an R8 to MT adapter is inexpensive and works OK in a mill drill. One likely problem is running out of clearance between the drill and table. Drill chuck arbors are also readily available; having one that works for both your lathe and adapted to your mill is another option.

- Used tooling, cheap, sometimes makes sense. For example, I use a DA200 collet setup with a #2 Morse taper for drilling through holes in my wood lathe. Sometimes useful in my Logan as well.

No doubt others will have many more suggestions.
Ian_Timshel
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 2:07 am
Location: Manitoba, Canada
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Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by Ian_Timshel »

Thanks Ray and Pete.
I'm so glad I asked! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif"%20alt="[/img] I'll have to hit the catalogue again to try and identify some of your collet references. Thanks very much for opening some doors for me. I'll try and have a closer look at the options you suggest sometime tomorrow.
Cheers! Ian.
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David_Brown

Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by David_Brown »

When I don't want to change tooling in my mill, but I want to drill a hole, just put a centre cutting end mill in my Weldon shank arbor and as long as the metal isn't too thick.....
Ian_Timshel
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Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 2:07 am
Location: Manitoba, Canada
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Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by Ian_Timshel »

David, Ray and Pete.

I had money left to buy another "good" chuck after consulting with you folks.. Thanks for piping up. Between the collets and straight shank adaptor, I'm away to the races.

Attached is a small spade drill that drilled within 3% of it's diameter on the finished hole. When I was sharpening it I had to go to the kids microscope to figure out if I'd actually done anything. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Thanks again. Ian.
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PeteM

Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by PeteM »

Geez, Ian. That's either a really small drill, or they've gone and inflated the Candadian currency
Ian_Timshel
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Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 2:07 am
Location: Manitoba, Canada
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Re: drill tooling for my mill

Post by Ian_Timshel »

Pete... hehe it's a small drill as the Canadian currency is in no way inflated... ;^)

These drills are surprisingly easy to make in principle. Turn a back taper where the fat end is the diameter that you want the drill to cut. Turn the end to reflect the cutting angle approximately. Then carefully file a gentle back taper on the flats. One critical element that took me years to learn was that the thickness of the flat must be a third the diameter you started with. It may be less than a third but more than that will make it impossible to get a good cutting edge established.

I make my small ones out of 3mm drill rod. Harden the finished drill as you would normally. When you temper this type of drill, hold the cutting tip in some fine flat "true" tweezers in order to leave the cutting tip '"dead hard". The shaft is tempered up to blue to allow you some room for error in breakage.

For sharpening, I use a pin vise and no magnification. I think through what the cutting angles should be and do a few gentle strokes on a fine oil stone then check with a #10 loupe or microscope.

Cheers! Ian.
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