[SKennedy]

Morning all,

So its been a while since i last posted on here, since selling the Sherline mill and keeping things small with a X2+ mini mill (cnc) something has always bothered me about removing the collets and drawbar to put a different size collet in.

So at the moment, im putting the locking pin in, undoing the drawbar a few threads and then hitting the drawbar with a deadblow hammer. after two or three taps, the collet becomes loose and i can remove by hand.

As we know the Mini mills are not the most beefy of construction and im kinda worried that after all the hard work of getting the mill trammed in and aligned, im knocking it out again,

I dont really have the room for a pneumatic or impact drawbar.

how much damage am i doing and any tips, tricks to make this better


Stu

[Jim Dawson]

I would use a steel hammer rather than a dead blow, it would actually take less force. The shock in this case is your friend, the dead blow doesn't shock the drawbar, but rather just uses brute force to break the taper hold. A light tap with a steel hammer would be more effective.

As far as damage to the machine, unless you are beating the hell out of it, you should be fine.