Anyone else ever removed their R8 drive pin?

[george wilson]

I had a devil of a time getting an old right angle milling attachment off our vertical mill at work. It had been well used before I got it,and I didn't notice that there was a deep groove in the lengthways groove in its R8 shank. It went AROUND the shank about 1/2". The little 1/8" drive pin had burrowed its way into the shank,and when I used the attachment,I had a terrible time getting it off the spindle. i can't recall how I ever did get it loose.

Anyhow,I subsequently removed the pesky little drive pin so as to have no more trouble like that. We always tightened the draw bar well,and never had any problem with the R8 collets trying to revolve. Also,we never let any oil get onto the collets,or into the spindle hole.

I'd do it to my mill at home,but haven't been able to unscrew the ring at the bottom of the spindle that covers the set screw and the drive pin under it.

What do you think about this? Did I do wrong? It never caused me any problems doing without the pin. The pin was too small to really do much except bugger up the collet groove any way,on the old attachment.

 

[Pacer]

I removed mine maybe a month ago -- like you I had a 2" indexable cutter grab on a weld spot and spun the pin about half a round on the R-8. I cleaned it up and continued to fuss with it for several months until I just took the thing out. I have been really enjoying just slipping the R-8 into the spindle easy-peasy and not fiddling with aligning it. I guess only time will tell - but I got a feeling that with what I do with my mill (home shop stuff) that its gonna be alright.

 

[xman_charl]

Removed mine several weeks ago. Some R8 collets/tooling
would slide easily in, others would not.

Spun a collete in mill arbor 2 years ago, sheared off the pins then.

Just a bench top, square column mill.

Charl

 

[FanMan]

The pin in mine was pretty much mashed when I got it, all it did was make it hard to insert and remove collets. Took it out (a PITA, it was staked in place, had to drill and grind it out), never missed it.

 

[pineyfolks]

The pin was out of mine when I bought it. I never had a problem. I've been running it that way for 15yrs. I don't think any of the mills at work had them.

 

[bedwards]

I had to file mine down some to fit different brands of collets.



bedwards

 

[endmill]

I work in a mold shop and I am the lone machinist who gets to fix everyone machines. When some one wrecks a mill of takes to big of a bit, we have had the key shear off to the side. This isn't pretty you have to drive the holder or collet out. So it isn't a bad thing to take the key out before that happens.

 

[Tony Wells]

IMO, it's not intended to transfer torque for cutting, but simply to allow for the taper to grab while tightening the drawbar. Once tight, the taper supplies the friction to drive the cutter.

I don't believe I have run more than a handful of mills other than brand new ones that still had the pin. Apparently, not needed.

 

[DMS]

When I got my mill the pin had been backed out. I ran it like that for a while, but eventually got tired of the collets spinning while tightening the drawbar so I set it to the proper depth again. Before doing so, I did a lot of reading; lets just say that people have strong feelings on both sides

Not sure what type of machine you have George, but to get to mine, I had to remove a setscrew on the cap at the end of the spindle. The cap then unscrews (mine requires a pin-spanner, which I had to fabricate). It was then a matter of setting the drive pin to depth. The arrangement on mine is basically a double set screw, with one being a dog-point type screw, and the other being a regular set screw used to jam against the other and hold it in place.

 

[DAN_IN_MN]

IMO, it's not intended to transfer torque for cutting, but simply to allow for the taper to grab while tightening the drawbar. Once tight, the taper supplies the friction to drive the cutter.

I don't believe I have run more than a handful of mills other than brand new ones that still had the pin. Apparently, not needed.

Mine hasn't had a pin for years. I've thought of replacing it. That's the farthest I've gotten. It would be nice not to have the collet spin while tightening it the first bit, but it is nice not having to hunt for the pin!