Old timer told me to check my collet nut before the tool. He was right.

A guy I've seen at the shop for years watched me struggle with a rough finish on some aluminum parts. He didn't say anything at first just pointed at my collet nut. I had been chasing tool deflection for two days. Changed out the tool, same issue. Tightened the collet nut proper and boom all my chatter disappeared. Guess I was being lazy about cleaning the collet too. Has anyone else had a fix come from something that simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

maryh9620d ago

Same thing happened to me on a job last month with some 304 stainless. Cleaning the collet and tightening it in the right sequence fixed everything.

jade73820d ago

Check those collet tapers for burrs too, that'll throw everything off.

wesley_thompson21d ago

Man, I've been there with the "chased tool deflection for two days" part. That's rough. I had a similar thing happen with a lathe job a few years back where I was swapping inserts and tweaking feeds like crazy. Turned out my collet nut was just the tiniest bit loose, enough to let the holder vibrate. It's almost embarrassing how simple the fix is when you've been overthinking it. Your mileage may vary, but I swear keeping those collets clean has saved me more headaches than any fancy tooling ever did.