I have always wondered why milling chucks need such a long gauge length, like why can’t they be made with 2.5” or less?
To be honest nowadays I only run sidelock holders with my indexable spot drills and also indexable drills and quad drills. They work very well for that purpose.
For all other applications I have a combination of collet holders, drill chucks, milling chucks, and a whole lotta shrink fit tool holders. The shrink fit I bought specifically for 5 axis work but I actually use them quite a bit now for general usage. They offer excellent runout, decent damping and are much more rigid that you would think, even the fancy ones with curvature and very very small nose diameters. I was pleasantly surprised with their rigidity on heavier roughing applications. Great for finishing too.
I plan to buy some hydraulic holders to achieve even better finishing here pretty soon.
Call me new school but I just don’t really like side lock holders. They don’t offer the range of gauge lengths I need and most of my (okay all of my) tooling comes without Weldon flats. Yes I could have them ground but, I don’t care. I don’t really care if my holder is $150 or 200 or even $350 like I pay for a milling chuck. Another benefit of milling chucks are the reducing sleeves so they are versatile. I would argue a milling chuck has much better damping than a side lock but I’m sure someone will whip out some testing that shows XYZ that proves me wrong but from my experience it is true.
Frank, you’re trying to tell me that runout doesnt matter for tool life? I wouldnt expect that response from someone who makes tool holders! Side locks are known to have the worst runout spec of all holders, and yes they work splendid for roughing but that is it, they suck ass for anything else (except those massive quad drills I mentioned, which is arguably a roughing op).
Your tool life will be better with a milling chuck. You can also use that same tool in the milling chuck and get amazing finishes, not as good with side lock. Yes they are cheap but you’ll probably spend more on tooling over time because your tool life will be less.
Everyone is going to buy what works for them and side locks have a place but I’m just not a big user of them for the reasons I stated.
Edit: another disadvantage of sidelock is lack of balance...but that does t really matter too much with lower speed spindles. I like to push the shrink fit all day long because for us it offers the most features for a cheap price...most Shrink holders are not crazy pricey