CNC collet lubrication

K

Kallam

Cast Iron

Joined

Feb 11, 2006

Location

South Carolina

• Jul 18, 2017

• #1

I was watching some cnc videos on you tube today.
Standard cnc lathe with a 16c collet chuck. The operator had a few thousand parts to do so he put high pressure grease on the collet taper.
Is this standard practice? Would the coolant interfere.
For 20 years I never lubed a collet or seen it done.
But it does make sense.
Do you guys do it?

 

D

deadlykitten

Banned

Joined

Aug 5, 2016

• Jul 19, 2017

• #2

hy / is more important to keep the clamping part clean

check if coolant goes inside ; if coolant goes inside :
... it will help the parts slide one on another
... it will wash grease; not all. but most if it
... it may go inside with swarf ; swarf + grease is a nasty combination

i have never greased the chucks, but i keep them sealed, thus minimizing swarf that goes inside ...

once a year i desemble and inspect them

 

T

Tonytn36

Diamond

Joined

Dec 23, 2007

Location

Southeastern US

• Jul 19, 2017

• #3

Yes, we grease our collets on a Tooling PM schedule. Since our collets may be in a machine for a long time (sometimes for the entire life cycle of a collet), we pull them at regular intervals to inspect for cracks, swarf, condition of the silicone slit sealer, condition of the clamping surface and any other damage and we grease them at reassembly.

 

WILLEO6709

Diamond

Joined

Nov 6, 2001

Location

WAPELLO, IA USA

• Jul 19, 2017

• #4

i have seen 5c's stick in the cone and not release properly unless they have some lube.

 

F

FredC

Diamond

Joined

Oct 29, 2010

Location

Dewees Texas

• Jul 19, 2017

• #5

We grease the collet tapers on all production jobs. It took years to wear the grinding marks off the spindle taper on our Hardinge GT. Collets seem to last longer than I would have expected also.

 

pianoman8t8

Hot Rolled

Joined

Nov 14, 2012

Location

Maine, USA

• Jul 19, 2017

• #6

Interesting! I've never seen it done, but it makes sense why a high volume setup would need this.

 

T

Tonytn36

Diamond

Joined

Dec 23, 2007

Location

Southeastern US

• Jul 19, 2017

• #7

Just to put some context, we may run 1.5-2 million parts on a single collet, but it is PM'd as above once a month. The clamping housing is usually good for 5-7 years.

 

litlerob1

Diamond

Joined

Nov 4, 2013

Location

Utah, USA

• Jul 19, 2017

• #8

I believe and it makes sense to me (never practiced it) but I'm not a volume guy. I would be afraid of debris otherwise known as shit getting on the mating surfaces and me not seeing it. Sure you say well clean everything first right? But that would be my fear. Again I don't expect a collet to last a Million cycles because we are breaking them down so often. 1-2-3x a day sometimes.

Ever have runout problems? How much grease? Just curious.

R

 

T

Tonytn36

Diamond

Joined

Dec 23, 2007

Location

Southeastern US

• Jul 20, 2017

• #9

Don't have any run out problems. Don't really have any problems with grime either. We seal the collet slits with white pliable silicone to prevent chip intrusion. When greased, it is a very thin film applied to the housing ID and a thin film added to the collet OD clamping taper- more is not better in this case. Also, remember that collets are "hidden" within the housing while all the business is going on, they are only slightly exposed during part exchange and the taper makes an excellent "wiper" as the collet is closed.

 

F

FredC

Diamond

Joined

Oct 29, 2010

Location

Dewees Texas

• Jul 20, 2017

• #10

We do not have any special problems with getting chips behind the collet. We do direct the oil on the cutoff near the collet in a direction that takes most of the chips away. When chucking we often use a little bleed air through to keep the collets slots clear. On the GT we adjust the collet closer so it does not open to far (1/4 to 1/3 of a turn open).

 

L

Limy Sami

Diamond

Joined

Jan 7, 2007

Location

Norfolk, UK

• Jul 20, 2017

• #11

Back in the day, on the Ward turret lathes fitted with Wards own lever collet chucks, we always lightly greased the female taper with literally just a smear of copaslip, and the taper of both types of collets, the Ward Multibore http://www.rotagriponline.com/index...rt&page=shop.browse&category_id=520&Itemid=29 and the Ward spring finger type http://www.rotagriponline.com/index...art&page=shop.browse&category_id=25&Itemid=29

If we didn't, the collets had a habit of not opening when the closing sleeve retracted in the chuck.