I finally switched from a 3/8 to a 1/2 inch collet for my roughing endmills

I always thought the smaller collet was fine for hogging out aluminum, but after a job in Cincinnati where I kept getting chatter, the shop foreman told me to try the bigger one. The difference was night and day, way less vibration and I could push the feed harder. Has anyone else made a simple tool change that fixed a stubborn problem?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakotawood1mo ago

Yeah, it's crazy how much a little extra stiffness from the bigger collet helps. I had the same thing with chatter on some steel parts until I switched. It just locks everything down so much tighter.

caleb2621mo ago

Ever try a collet block, @dakotawood, or does that just add more setup time?

bettywood29d ago

Funny you mention that. I actually tried collet blocks a while back and had mixed results. They do tighten things up but the setup time killed me on small batch work. For me, the ER collet setup was faster and I could swap parts without breaking down the whole thing. Depends on the job though, right?