Evodawg wrote in
:

Anyone having trouble with Porter Cable Router Colet holding bits
tight? I was routing a wood frame built to hide the edge of a beveled
mirror for a large bathroom mirror. I do remember tightening the bit
and all was going well with a 1/2" rabbiting bit/with bearing and
without any warning, (but expect I wouldn't get any anyway) the bit
went flying off damaging the area I was routing and spinning to the
other side and taking a large nick out of that side. This was an
expensive piece of maple trim from Craft Maid and to say the least I
was ****ed! After a time out to calm down I thought back and reflected
I was really lucky not to get nailed in the face by this flying
projectile. This is a newer Router, 693 Porter Cable using the fixed
base. Needless to say, I torque the bit more than what I thought
necessary when I decided to continue. Wondering if anyone else has had
this problem or was it operator error?

Been there, done that... I had a 1/4" straight bit let go just last
week. There are a couple of contributing factors in my case. My 1/4"
collet is very loose to begin with. You have to snug up the nuts a good
bit just to hang onto the bit enough so it won't drop all the way into
the collet. I suspect my threads could use a cleaning & lubricating as
well. The other problem is that I live in New England, and the collets
seem to be made out of steel that rusts if you look at it cross-eyed. A
little bit of surface rust probably didn't help matters. I'm planning on
getting a new collet, and cleaning & lubing the surfaces. The collet
will get a tiny bit of light oil, and the threads will get some wax. I
try to keep the use of oil to a minimum on my wood working tools to
reduce A) staining any wood that comes in contact with it, and B) the
attraction of oiled surfaces to dust.

Doug White