Something to share that made mill setup just a little easier and faster. I replaced my R8 arbor drill chuck a 5/8″ drill chuck with a 3/4″ straight shank arbor I found on eBay. Whenever I center the spindle, tram, drill holes, etc I would normally unload whatever Paragon 3/4″ hole saw arbor was in the mill, along with the R8 collet itself and load a regular R8 arbor Drill chuck. Then I’d use the edge-finder in the drill chuck to center the spindle. Then either load a drill bit to make breather holes or whatever or reverse the last toolery setup so I had the needed tooling in the spindle whether it be a hole saw arbor loaded back up in the mill or an endmill holder. Not hugely time consuming but enough that this new setup makes a nice difference and it also works in the horizontal mill. The drill chuck fits up to 5/8″ diameter and slides right into the R8 collet. Now I almost never have to remove the collet from the spindle since all i ever use are 3/4″ Paragon arbors and this chuck. Very exciting.
I’m straight off to get one of those. There’s nothing like having the stuff to make life just that little bit smoother.
Unscrewing that drawbar each time might be just another little thing, but they niggle away at my brain while I’m working, and make me all snarky.
Thanks for that Whit…