"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I picked up a Taig 2019 mini mill recently, and have been using it to do
some CNC engravng while I learned how to use my software and get a feel for
my machine. Mostly I used some 1/8" shaft stuff to do some engraving.
Today I decided it was time to make some tight fitting solid t-bolt nuts
and rails to fit in the table. Something a little better than the flat
plates that came with the mill. Also helicoiled to a common size so I
could pick up a variety of different length screws to use with clamping
fixtures.

Thinking everything would be honky dory I sliced some 3/8" aluminum plate
on the table saw to 5/8" wide strips So I could mill it down to 1/2" to
fit the table grooves. Then I got it clamped up on the mill table with a
couple welding clamps. I used the shaft of an 1/8 mill point to get the
bar straight roughly to the table travel, and proceeded to swap collets to
use a 1/4" flat end mill to rough material off of one side only to find
out that my 1/4" shaft mill point would not fit in the 1/4" collet with
the collet snapped into the nut. Then I tried with the 3/8" collet with a
3/8" shaft end mill and got the same results. The ER16 is what is
supposed to be used in this mill, and the collets where clearly labeled
for the size I was trying to install and use.

Am I missing something? If I took the collet out of the mill head nut I
could force the shaft in, but then it would not snap into the nut at all.
I measuered the shafts of the various mill points I was trying with a
caliper, and the 3/8 measures .375 and the 1/4 measures .250 so I know its
not that, but hey I had to check and make sure right.


You have metric collets.

JC