Bilz tapping collets - how to?

[Timleech]

Yes Tim, Allendale.
I bought the air tapping head and a full set of chucks, M3 to M12 for £320 a while ago and made my own frame.
Knowing what I know now I should have bougt one years ago but until these Chinese ones came on the market they were very expensive here.
even second hand they were fetching £1200 to £1500 at auction.

I have made on 'chuck' which is just a dogged drive to fit the motor with a JT6 taper and 13mm keyless chuck. handy for holding a countersink to remove the burrs from tapping. Wobbles about a bit for accurate drilling and is a slow speed but fine for the odd hole or countersink / counterbore.

Like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Type-1-Tap-Collet-with-Jacobs-JT6-Chuck-Adaptor-Tapping-/230848691706

?

Tim

[John Stevenson]

Bastard.
Talking to them at a show and told him what I'd done, anyway good luck to them, they have the ability to get things done but royalties would have been nice

Even copied the JT6 taper when they could have used anything. Any patent lawyers here ?

[Black Forest]

I sure hope you have some good cheese to go with that whine Sir John!

[John Stevenson]

That wasn't a whine, that was a bitch

Seriously I don't mind, I can't get them made and market them, chances are total sales over a year are sub 20 any way.

The Allendale / machine DRO lads are OK, we stand the same shows and get on well. When I wanted a new DRO for the Bridgy a while ago they really did me a good deal, they gave me trade without asking for it and even upgraded to a better display, again without asking.

[Timleech]

John

I decided to follow up your idea about an MT holder, thought I would strike while the iron was hot (or at least while it was on my mind).
I'd forgotten until sorting through the Bilz collets that I had this holder, came as part of a job lot but it had a 32mm shank which was no bl**dy use to ordinary mortals:-



To make it more useful it needed a smaller shank, but first had to be dismantled so that I could hold it properly:-



It was a bit of a mess inside, with rusted springs etc. Cleaned it all up, found a couple of new springs which were somewhere near right. Then turned down the shank to MT2 taper, to fit in a sleeve:-



The shank was hard, but not too hard for a carbide insert. I couldn't go much smaller because of the internal bore. Then Loctited the shank into an MT2-3 sleeve.

Finally reassembly, that was a bit of a challenge. One unexpected issue was that it has six balls inside, three for the collet lock and three to take the drive torque. They all looked the same, but three were 4.95mm & the other three 5.15mm. It doesn't work if you put them in the wrong places!

Finished product:-



With all the messing about, took a good chunk of the afternoon which was not in the plan!

Tim

[John Stevenson]

Neat bit of gear Tim, means I now have to get my finger out.