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What Brand of Hydraulic Tool Holder Should I Buy?

rkrolak10

Plastic
Joined
Jun 18, 2017
Hello first time poster here!

I just purchased a CAT 40 CNC mill and I'm looking to tool it up with hydraulic tool holders. The machine is for R&D so I will be cutting all sorts of materials using processes that range from milling, drilling, and thread milling.

My question:

What brand of tool holders do you use and why? I am currently sold on the precision of hydraulic holders and their ease of use, but would like to know what holder type you run and why you chose this type of holder.

Information I'm looking for:

Tool holder type: hydro, shrink fit, ER collet, etc.

Brand: sandvik, erikson, schunk, etc.

Why you went with this holder: application based, cost, etc.

Thank you for reading my post and I look forward to reading your opinions.


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You'll want some ER-style collet holders anyway for drills, much more flexible for size, and better accuracy than drill chucks.

Most of my holders are Techniks, again, in ER (16 and 40 mostly). Techniks Tooling Solutions for CNC Machines and CNC Routers – Boring Tools, Magnetic Workholding, Lifting Magnets, ER Collets, Toolholders

What's your budget and how many holders do you want? Est ~$300 - $400 a shot for hydraulics, then ~$60 for reducing sleeves. These are sorta WAGs as I haven't bought any lately.
 
We use Schunk hydraulic holders exclusively for the department I mainly program for. Didn't go through an eval process for various brands because we investigated Schunk through companies we collaborate with and and perform similar work but we did insist on a mandatory trial period and a 100% performance guarantee.

That being said they have worked quite well for us and currently use them to material ranging from very soft to 55 Rc. Some peel milling hard material too. At first we wanted to use only on size holders and were against using any sort of collets or sleeves. However, after using sleeves during the trial period we were sold on them because they had very good run out, good dampening characteristics and sleeving allowed an enormous amount of versatility with using a very limited amount of different holders. The sleeving aspect greatly simplifies holder selection for programming that department and somewhat made it the envy of other departments.

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we used only 20mm holders, with sleeves, to completely cover our requirements for a very long time until we had a need to order a few different sizes of on-sized slim style holders. So in the beginning we typically used cutter from .005" diameter up to 12mm and used only 20mm holders with sleeves. It also helped that all the machines in that department used CAT40 holders. Any simplification or automation in programming is very welcomed, indeed.
 
Thanks for the feedback on the holders you guys are using!

If anyone else has any other opinions please let me know!!


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I'm not a huge fan of Hydraulic chucks. Bladders leak, huge mass at the end of the tool holder can restrict tool paths around bosses or risers on the part. If it's grip and runout you're concerned about consider a milling chuck or better yet: SK16 collet chuck. Twice the grip of ER and half the runout. I have some new ones in stock for $110 if you're interested pm me. Spock and several others here use mine and can vouch for them.

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I'm not real big on hydraulic holders... you have to spend a ton of money to get one that will hold an end mill worth a flip if you're doing anything but finishing. Now, for that, I have to say, Kennametal HydroForce all the way. Didn't pull out using a 3/4" mill with 1-1/2" length of cut, and giving it the business too...

But again, pricey.

Hydraulics are also great for drilling and reaming. Now, I'm talking precision stuff. Carbide drills and reamers. You can successfully hold diameter tolerances of .0004 to .0005 with a carbide drill, if it runs dead true... hydraulic holder all the way... granted, this is a go/no-go check. Our customer checks parts with this method. For actual roundness and dimensional size, I would ream. Whoops - tangent!

Last note on hydraulic, I like Schunk. We got a great deal through them when we got into precision carbide drilling/reaming. They work great.

Make sure you don't put an end mill with a Weldon flat in your hydraulic holder, unless you have a sleeve. Bad news.

I myself am a fan of Weldon (set-screw) holders... blasphemy, yes, but I find gage length to be as important as anything, and Weldon holders have a big edge there.

ER chucks work good for either small end mills or finishing with bigger (1/2" and up). ER16 chucks are great for like 1/4" and smaller end mills.

I'm a big fan of Maritool. Anything I've gotten from them has been of impeccable quality, and price is fantastic.
 
I'm not a huge fan of Hydraulic chucks. Bladders leak, huge mass at the end of the tool holder can restrict tool paths around bosses or risers on the part

hy :) if you put it this way, you are right ; but hydra holders were not designed for such operations, but roughing

when spaces are tight, a normal hydra holder may not fit in, but there is the slim_hydra_collection from Schunk at least ...
 
Pioneer makes some bearingless mill chucks that are pretty sweet. Rep left one for us to try out, I ordered 12 more after running it a little while. 1/2 inch should be around $260 without jet blast ports and $300 with(thru my local distributor). If you buy 10 you get one free through the end of the month. I know they aren't hydraulic holders, but the run out is as good or better(.0002)than most hydraulics I've run. They are dual contact and balanced for 20,000 rpm. They offer a modded version that uses a pin across a Weldon shank end mill to eliminate pull-out. If you don't seat the tool in past a certian point, they are thru coolant. If you are going to bottom the tool out in the holder, and use thru spindle coolant, you may want to add jet blast ports. We were HSM so I wasn't testing the max pull out or torque on the end mill.
 








 
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