"Jim Levie" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:34:54 -0700, Harold & Susan Vordos wrote:



Mixed reviews on that subject. Personally, I'd fix it, but there are
some
that go out of their way to remove it. It's nice to know that the
collet
isn't going to spin on you when you tighten the draw bar, which is it's
real
intended purpose, not to drive the cutting tool, although I have no
doubt
that it also helps in that department. In all my years on the
machines
I've never run a mill without one, nor have I ever busted one, although
the
shank of one of my boring heads is a little buggered up from one from a
crash many years ago. I guess you might say it's a personal
judgment
call.

I noticed that a mill I was using in one "high end shop" had had the
indexing pin removed and asked the shop foreman about it. He told me that
it was really there for indexing of the collet to keep it from turning
when tighting or loosening the drawbar, but they'd pulled them from all of
the mills after someone engaged the drawbar and started tightening
it before the collet was indexed into the pin slot. The pin was soft
enough to shear off, but they had the devil of a time getting the collet
out without causing more damage.



Chuckle!

I'd question just how "high end" the shop was when they pull tricks like
that. My opinion? They should have replaced the guy that screwed up, not
removed the indexing pins from all the machines. But I digress. I
think it's a personal call, as I've stated, but anyone that worked for me
that made that call wouldn't be working for me at the end of the day. I,
by far, prefer to have those that have enough skill and talent to not screw
up instead of altering machines so they can't do so. To me, it's a sign of
a fine craftsman when he can operate equipment properly.

Harold