Need Help! Excello R8 collet stickout

Hi Guys,

I have been looking for anyone with a similar issue to what I'm experiencing. When I load my R8 collets into my spindle on both of my Ex-Cell-O and XLO machines they stick out about 1/4 inch and will not pull in no matter how hard I try. Internally they feel like R8 collet spindles and nothing in the manuals is even close to the internal dimensions of another spindle type. So I've deduced that these have to be R8 tapers in the spindle. We just can't figure out why they are not drawing up in properly. I have tried adding extra washers to the draw bar up top thinking it was bottoming out on the collet threads; but nope, not the issue.

Anyone who's had a similar issue and can offer some advise is most appreciated! I even had a friend bring over some of their R8 collets that work perfectly in their Bridgeport machines. Their collets and mine do the exact same thing; so my issue is not my collets. In my one YouTube video I show the issue at the 5:10 time mark so you can see what I am talking about. Any help would be appreciated!

https://youtu.be/cvOgtB5k92g?t=310

Never owned a R8 taper, but believe there is a set screw up in the taper, maybe it's damaged and won't let tooling up past it.

Sent from my 5007U using Tapatalk

No it's not that in fact the set screws were missing in both of my mill spindles. I ordered new ones ($20 each) and the damn things were much too small. Whatever taper alignment set screw goes into these Excello spindles must be a lot bigger in diameter. -Bottom line nothing is in the spindle to prevent it from engaging. Everything inside looks perfectly normal and as it should be (minus the optional alignment set screws).