Has anyone had problems with collet adapters?

[daniel]

I bought a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter for my collet so that I can use dremel tool bits in my makita router. It seems I haveing problems with them comming out of the collet. They appear to be the same size and it is a new collet on my router....
Any suggestions Guys?

[kfitz]

http://rlspellmanmfg.com/index_bushings.html

You can buy them individually. All the way down to 1/16". They work great.

The nice thing about the Spellman bushings is that it is VERY easy to change bits. I have had trouble with getting broken bits out of other bushings/collets. I highly recommend them.

[trakwebster]

Elsewhere in another topic the Enco company was mentioned for something called a Stubby Collet Chuck, which will hold various collets.

The Enco company also has a series of R11 collets which are sliced and springy and will take a range of drillbit shaft sizes. I tried both their 'economy' collets (about $16 each) and these more expensive ones (about $25 each).

The first economy collet I tried was difficult to remove from the collet chuck, so I've returned the economy ones, and recommend the more expensive ones. For not very much money you can handle a very wide range of small drill bit sizes.

I've used them on a couple of projects and so far they seem to perform well. I'm running only a small Makita router, and so I suppose the resulting extension of the bits by using the collet chuck will probably accellerate wear on the router's bushings. But so far, so good.

Enco company is found at http://www.use-enco.com

[tomj]

Daniel,
we had the same problem as you - got the R11 collets from Enco like Arthur and problem solved. I highly recommend going away from the 1/8" to 1/4" adapter to anyone.

my $0.02

Tom

[wayne_walker]

I have purchased a set of the Spellman bushings but have not used them yet. Is there any problem using regular drill bits? I am a little concerned about running them at 10,000 RPM!!! I would be drilling ABS plastic with #10 and #20 bit size. What would you recommend for a plunge rate?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Wayne

[gerald_d]

Wayne: http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/29/1798.html

[daniel]

For those of you who use the Enco products... What would I buy that would fit my makita router? The website doesn't really say what routers there collets will fit.

[tomj]

here are the links directly to what we purchased. We are also using a Makita router with a 1/2" collet.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=308-0018
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=891-6984

Brady Watson's write up convinced me to go with these. Look at the bottom of the page of this link:
http://www.shopbottools.com/Brady's_tricks.htm (it seems the apostrophe is throwing the url for a loop. Go to http://www.shopbottools.com/support.htm and click on Brady's tips & tricks at the bottom of the page.)

we trimmed the stubby collet chuck about a 1/2" for our application so we could reduce the overall length.

Hope this helps.

Tom

[kfitz]

Wayne, no problem at all running drill bits in the Spellman bushings. That's one of the reasons I went with Spellman; it was the only adapter I could find to run a 1/16" drill bit. I have run my smaller bits much faster than 10K and had no problems. With that small a diameter, tip speed is still fairly low, and the mass is really too small to do damage in case of a break. Just wear your safety glasses, as always. I don't have any specific plunge rates for you. I think you will just have to experiment.

[Brady Watson]

FYI ~ This is who supplies Enco with them: http://www.craftsmanindustries.com/

I got a very nice letter from them last week thanking me for mentioning their products in my column...although at the time of writing the article I only knew of the stubby collet chucks available through Enco & had no idea who made them. I thought it was nice of them to e-mail me.

-B

[wayne_walker]

Thanks to all for the responce. I guess I will put on my Kevlar vest and Lexan glasses and go out to the shop...

Thanks again,

Wayne

[daniel]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm going to order the Enco collet this week coming up....Thanks again!

[steve4460]

I have used 1/4 to 1/8 adapter that I got from the local lumber yard , that is made by roto zip .It costs about $ 7.00 and comes with 2 or 3 1/8 bits and an allen wrench , and it has a 1/4 shank so it will fit in your collar .
check it out .

Bot on