Silver lining

[Tel]

At least the combination of the outage and a rainy day allowed me to finish this little project - a set of MT2 collet blocks.

[abby]

They look really good Tel , I am well impressed with the number stamping , are they hardened ? what is the finish ? Do you think the server fire was caused by Firebirds meths burner or Baggo putting Helen to bed without checking the fire was out first ?

[Tel]

Mate, I thought somebody had let Paul get near the matches again.

The collet's a cheat - one out of my set

[AndrewP]

Nice Tel, how do they work then?
MT2 collets I understand, drawbar closed obviously but the holders? One for the 3 jaw and for the 4 jaw?
When would they be used for instance?

Cheers, Andy

[Tel]

They have a multitude of uses Andy, but the principal one (from my point of view), is doing squares and hexs on rod with the block held in the milling machine vise.

Also dandy for holding short workpieces for second ops.

[AndrewP]

Thanks Tel, that's neat, my collets are an ER25 ish set but the holder is MT2 - might just have to have a go at that, saves messing about with the rotary table.
On second thoughts if the collet is holding the workpiece what the h*** do I put the milling cutter in? b*****r

[Tel]

;D That's why I made 'em in MT2 - to keep the MT3's for the milling spindle

[AndrewP]

That's where I went wrong, too clever for my own good both mill and lathe have MT2 tapers deliberately to save on tooling.
Never mind, I ought to be getting on with my Rob Roy anyway, not messing about making tooling.