John Husvar wrote:

Well, the boss finally broke down and bought a mill -- sorta.

It's from Cummins Tools, those guys who periodically descend on some
unsuspecting town and hold a "Truckload Tool Sale."

It's a red-painted beast with the head on ways rather than on a round
post. (Which I like) It's about 18 inches tall with decent X and Y table
motions, (8 inches on the Y axis and 4+ on the X) there's not a lot of
backlash and for what little slot-cutting, etc. we do, it'll probably be
adequate.

Now comes The Problem. Since it was the last one they had for this trip
and was a little shopworn, boss got it for $250; as is, where is. It
came with no collets only an attachment with a 1/2-inch chuck on it. The
chuck will hold an end mill well enough for cutting slots, but the damn
chuck won't stay on the drawbar. I've tried cleaning the drawbar taper
up, marking it with magic marker each trial. The mating surfaces now
appear to be touching each other correctly, but the damn chuck still
won't stay on anyway.

Since I'm by no means a skilled or knowledgeable machinist, (or even _a_
machinist) I'm asking for some ideas how to correct this problem.

I'm tempted to just chuck the attachment bar in a lathe, turn down the
chuck taper until I can get the chuck against the shoulder of the
attachment and just weld the thing together. We'll never need to cut
more than 3/8 slots, but I just think that's a poor way to solve the
problem, just a desperation move.

Does anybody know what collets the thing _should_ use and if they are
available? Would the welding plan work at all, disregarding the
hack-and-slash methodology?

I'm trying to get this thing operating well enough for occasional use on
very small tasks generally. So far, it worked fine, though incorrectly,
for a simple slot lengthening job, but I'd really like to get it going
right. It's not a Bridgeport, but I'd like to make it work well enough
for our small shop.

Advance thanks: I know somebody on this group will have a answer besides
"throw the POS out!"

Taper mounted chucks are *not* to be used in side loaded applications
like milling. Order a proper collet for $10 or end mill holder for $20
from Enco.

Pete C.