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Plastic
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2016
- Location
- Pennsylvania
I have an Atlas 12" lathe, and it came with the milling attachment. I understand that milling on a lathe, especially a small one such as this, is not going to be a quick or enjoyable process. However, I have occasional need to mill something, and I would like to get a few end mills and be able to do these jobs myself.
My question is regarding the end mill holding method. I have three obvious options:
3MT collets in the headstock. Solid, multi-purpose. Would require machining a drawbar and would be the slowest method, but probably the most rigid, and perhaps the cheapest.
End-mill holders with 3MT shanks. These will likely have a little more give than a collet, but would offer faster end mill changes. They aren't useful for anything other than holding end mills.
5C collets in the collet chuck I have for this lathe. The chuck adds quite a bit of length off the headstock spindle, and I'm sure would be the least stiff option. It would be the most multi-purpose setup by far, as I have this nice 5C chuck sitting around, but no collets for it.
I guess I could also chuck an end mill directly into the 3-jaw as well, but that doesn't seem like it would work nearly as well as the holder of collet options.
Any thoughts on which method would be best? I'm trying to keep outlay to a minimum, as otherwise the money would be better spend on a mill. As I said, these are occasional small jobs, nothing major or frequent.
My question is regarding the end mill holding method. I have three obvious options:
3MT collets in the headstock. Solid, multi-purpose. Would require machining a drawbar and would be the slowest method, but probably the most rigid, and perhaps the cheapest.
End-mill holders with 3MT shanks. These will likely have a little more give than a collet, but would offer faster end mill changes. They aren't useful for anything other than holding end mills.
5C collets in the collet chuck I have for this lathe. The chuck adds quite a bit of length off the headstock spindle, and I'm sure would be the least stiff option. It would be the most multi-purpose setup by far, as I have this nice 5C chuck sitting around, but no collets for it.
I guess I could also chuck an end mill directly into the 3-jaw as well, but that doesn't seem like it would work nearly as well as the holder of collet options.
Any thoughts on which method would be best? I'm trying to keep outlay to a minimum, as otherwise the money would be better spend on a mill. As I said, these are occasional small jobs, nothing major or frequent.