Collet question new user

[Ginettag20]

Dear Friends

I have just bought a vertex collet set for my warco mill drill. The collets have a female threaded part at the back to take screw in tooling. My question is can tools that have a plain shank and no thread be used in this type of collet ?

Regards Chris.

[alanstepney]

I am not familiar with those specific collets, but virtually every collet I have seen will accept plain or threaded shanks, always providing they are the correct size of course.

The threaded ones will stay in place better as the plain ones might move under a heavy cut.

[Tel]

there is a solution to that problem - don't take heavy cuts ;D

[Deleted]

The answer is plain and simple NO it wont hold plain shanks.
The reason is this. The holder is designed for use with treaded shanks. As you screw the mill into the collet you sort of fill it up and provide it with a centre pop. This bears against the centre which is in the main body of the holder. When closing the big ring nut you not only close the collet but also press this against the centre at the bottom of the holder.
When you should use plain shanks there is noting for the collet to bear against as this is provided by the screwed in mill and it simply wont close
In use I screw the mill into the collet but not to deep. Place the collet and mill in the holder and close the nut by hand. Most of the time the collet is not taken and still lose in the holder. Now I screw the mill in by hand until it bottoms an in doing so locks the collet. Now lose the big nut say ¾ of a turn and screw the mill in until it bottoms again. Lose the nut and scew it back on firmly by HAND. I never use the provided key to close the holder.
Why does it not come out even if closed by hand? Simple if the mill should move under the strain of cutting the action of the screw tread in the collet is such it only puts more closing pressure on the collet in doing so only setting itself more firmly.
Last warning Keep the nut and holder CLEAN and use light smear of light oil on the screw tread. The nut on my first one jammed and stripped the tread plain of due to a piece of swarft.
For plain shank mills there are cheap holders with a hole for the mill and a set screw on the side. Just grind a small flat in the right spot in the shank of the mill, some come with that. I have a set of these holders and the most common used mills live in them. Saves the collet holder for special ones.
Regards
Wilfried Vermeiren
users.skynet.be/modelbouw.wilfried

[Ginettag20]

Many thanks you instructive comments. I will work on the side of caution and only used the screwed tooling as the collet tool holder was expensive.

Thanks Chris