Beta project: Milling machine collet holder

Made on a Glowforge
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This is something have I wanted to make ever since getting my milling machine a few years ago.
The Tree mills use these unusual double taper collets to hold tools in the spindle,

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They are not marked by size which is annoying, and until now I had them stored jumbled in a box in a drawer. Enter the laser!

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I wanted a holder that would occupy unused space next to the machine, and have easy to read labels for the collets. The 1/4" plywood is plenty strong with a few reinforcing disks underneath.
I had a some disks that were drops out of other projects, and I just stacked them up with a pin for alignment and glued them on.

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It clamps on an existing arm I added a while ago to hold the on/off switch and speed control.
I got to use the mill and lathe to make the clamp and pivot, because I love using the machines to fix/improve themselves.

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The tab labels give me lots of room for big numbers, and double as finger holds for spinning to the size you want.

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All in all a very successful and satisfying project!

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Wow! That’s brilliant in its simplicity. Nice work.

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ThisOldTony would be envious. Nice post.

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Very organized! (Rather jealous, actually.) Great idea! :smiley:

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Sweet piece of organization! After having to fish them out of a box, you will grin every time your eye lands on it.
Thanks for the inspiration.

It occurs to me we will need a box to keep all the cut outs and useful scraps in.

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A Dry Moly Lube spray on the collets and you could permanently laser the size onto the collet itselft. (Poor man’s Cermark,)

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Those look like some very clean cuts on the quarter inch too…which is most excellent to see! :relaxed:

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Well done! Looks great and very useful. :slight_smile:

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This is just so ridiculously clever. And the end result is really satisfying.

And only a very small part of me wants to mix all the tabs up and cackle to myself in the corner.

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I ditto all of the above compliments!! Great work as usual!

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Speaking of which, making the tab sizes unique by collet size so the tab only fits into the correct sizer would prevent evil cackling in the corner :slightly_smiling_face:

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Love the design. practical and looks very useful. Man, I can’t wait to get my hand on one on a Glowforge.

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I love artistic stuff, but THIS is what gets me super excited! By the way, my collets came from the factory with their size laser etched. might be worth a shot?

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If not lyrical, that is poetic.

Wonderful project. Well-designed and very thoughtful. Thanks for sharing.

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simple and elegant, once again!