Confused About Collets, Spindle Taper

If the LMS had an ER-32 spindle then my answer would be different. ER-32 collets are available to 7/8 inch, and do a fine job of holding tooling. Er-16s are a tad light IMHO.
 
"Be on the lookout for a BP or similar knee mill"...

No doubt about that. Excellent advice. I wish I could.

I can't spend $$N$$, plus I need to haul the thing into my basement so weight is a real issue. 600 lbs or more is not an option. :cry:
 
WHEN I WAS MILL SHOPPING , AN R-8 SPINDLE WAS AN ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT .
NOT ONLY FOR WHAT I CAN GET FOR IT , BUT FOR THE TOOLING THAT I ALREADY HAD .

I SETTLED ON THE PRECISION MATTHEWS PM-272M .
IT HAS AN R-8 SPINDLE & WEIGHS LESS THAN 600 POUNDS .

I SAVED A COUPLE OF HUNDRED DOLLARS BY DEALING WITH THEM DIRECTLY .

DSC_0567.JPG DSC_0565.JPG
 
You seem to be asking all the right questions. That's a good way to get a right answer.

The belt drive and air spring conversion kits cost about $200 from Little Machine Shop. I got both for my HF mini mill but I haven't installed the air spring yet. It was fairly easy to install the belt drive. See:

http://littlemachineshop.com/instructions/2560BeltDriveKit.pdf

Don't forget that you're probably going to need several hundred dollars for a vise, collets, clamp set, end mills, etc.

Depending on what you are doing, you can get by quite nicely with a mini mill and a couple of dial indicators. You don't necessarily need a Bridgeport with a DRO. After I bought my mini mill I got lucky and found an old American horizontal mill that weighed @ 500 pounds . However, I still use my HF quite a bit.

This guy has done a lot with his:

http://www.hossmachine.info/

Edited to add: When I got my mini mill I downloaded all the Sieg X2 manuals I could find.
 
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The ER collet 32 collet system has the same diameter capacity ad the R8. The R8probably is more versatile. There are stub milling arbors, face mill arbors and MT adapters that would not normally be available for ER32. Of course with a 3/4 ER collet yyou could take advantage of Tormach syle holders.
I have a BP clone ans often run it with the ER32 collet chuck.
 
R8 is the industry standard. I would guess that a mill that comes thru with an ER16 taper in the spindle is too small for an R8 taper. If you have an R8 taper ouc can use ER 16, 25 , 32 or 40 collets in it with the proper collet chuck. My HF 33686 has an R8 taper but I bought an ER32 collet chuck set and use the ER32 collets 90% of the time. They go from 1/16 to 7/8 by 32's. They also have a greater range for each collet as they are slotted for both ends and the sides stay parallel. Every person I know that doesn't have an R8 spindle regrets not having one.
 
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