"Vince Heuring" wrote in message

See the exploded diagram of a PC collet at
http://www.heuring.org/PCColletAssy.jpg .

Here's what I found:
snip

The point: collets are not immune to damage, especially 1/4" PC ones.
If you're using a bit that has any tendency to pull itself out of the
collet, as the spiral upcut bit does, you would be wise to occasionally
take the collet apart, clean the assembly, and inspect all pieces
thoroughly. At any sign of damage, replace your collets. They're only
$7.11 at Amazon. BTW, the 1/2" collets showed no damage, but did need
cleaning.
snip

Sorry for the long post, but I did want to get to the bottom of this,
and hope you guys will find it useful.

Absolutely ... thanks for taking the time. Just a reminder to tag on, if you
don't mind:

Not a bad idea to do a mental "what if" plan for collet failure/bit creep
because it seems that it happens to everyone, to some degree, sooner or
later; and _always_ use a push "block" of some type on non-through type cuts
rabbets/dadoes/grooves/etc on a router table.

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Last update: 8/08/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)