Measure twice; No, three times. Maybe even four. An don't cross the street without looking both ways.

[Logan Novice]

My ER32 chuck and collets arrived in a box large enough to hold a VW bug. But I got through the packing material and was excited to check out all of the pieces. My mill draw bar is M12, of course. Aren't all Chinesium draw bars M12? Slipped the MT3 chuck into the spindle and tightened the draw bar. All went smooth but the draw bar was a bit long and the assembly didn't mate like it should. Oh; I know. The threads in the collet chuck are a little short. So, I will lengthen them. Grabbed my M12 tap and went to work. Tap threaded in nicely and, when it came to the end of the threads (or so a assumed) it got tight. Just like a tap should when it reaches the end of the threads. I ran the M12 tap down a few turns. Now the draw bar moved as I thought it should and, eventhough the drawbar felt a bit sloppy in the hole, the assembly tightened nicely. Examining the newly tapped threads I find they look pretty gnarly. Then it hit me. Just because the ER32 collet set originates with a supplier that imports from China doesn't mean EVERYTHING in his inventory is metric. Oh s....! Yep, there was the answer to the resistance to the tap. The threads are 1/2-13. So much for crossing the street without looking both ways. No permanent damage done. It still works fine with a newly turned draw bar at 1/2-13. But I won't let my visitors look down the threaded shaft of the chuck if I can help it.

 

[westerner]

There is a 3/8 and 10mm thread similarity that has put the skids to a job around here, maybe, uh, twice?

 

[sycle1]

Logan I had the same issue with my mill, I thought it shipped with M12 Drawbar, when it got here drawbar was 1/2" WW DOH!!!
All newly purchased tooling was M12 drawbar thread.
So I feel your pain.

 

[RJSakowski]

My ER32 chuck and collets arrived in a box large enough to hold a VW bug. But I got through the packing material and was excited to check out all of the pieces. My mill draw bar is M12, of course. Aren't all Chinesium draw bars M12? Slipped the MT3 chuck into the spindle and tightened the draw bar. All went smooth but the draw bar was a bit long and the assembly didn't mate like it should. Oh; I know. The threads in the collet chuck are a little short. So, I will lengthen them. Grabbed my M12 tap and went to work. Tap threaded in nicely and, when it came to the end of the threads (or so a assumed) it got tight. Just like a tap should when it reaches the end of the threads. I ran the M12 tap down a few turns. Now the draw bar moved as I thought it should and, eventhough the drawbar felt a bit sloppy in the hole, the assembly tightened nicely. Examining the newly tapped threads I find they look pretty gnarly. Then it hit me. Just because the ER32 collet set originates with a supplier that imports from China doesn't mean EVERYTHING in his inventory is metric. Oh s....! Yep, there was the answer to the resistance to the tap. The threads are 1/2-13. So much for crossing the street without looking both ways. No permanent damage done. It still works fine with a newly turned draw bar at 1/2-13. But I won't let my visitors look down the threaded shaft of the chuck if I can help it.

What you have is a universally tapped chuck. It will work with both inch and metric threads.

Running an M12-1.75 rap into a 1/2-13 tapped hole, you have done very little damage to the first four threads. Even after that, have only reduced the contact surface of the additional 1/2-13 threads by about 50%. You shouldn't have reduced the serviceability of your new chuck in any significant manner.

And yes, I now look both ways twice when crossing a street or driving through an intersection.

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Measure twice; No, three times. Maybe even four. And don't cross the street without looking both ways.​

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Having absolutely no bearing on the subject at hand except the title, I am just full of over 50 years worth of "sea stories" and feel a little verbose this morning. The primary difference between fairy tales and sea stories of course is in the very beginning a fairy tale starts off "Once upon a time. . . " and a sea story "This ain't no $h!t, I was there, I saw it."

Time: fall of 1969, place: Wellington, New Zealand, my age at the time: just! turned 18. My first visit to a "left drive" country. And being a kid from the US deep south, the (almost) first time for making my own decisions about partaking of alcoholic beverages. New Zealand beer happens to be a somewhat higher alcoholic content(10-12%?) than U S beer. Add to that I have a sweet tooth so used a couple fingers in a litre mug of the local Rum then added NZ beer to top it off. Further, I had not yet learned to judge just how intoxicated I had become.

Crossing a divided steet in Wellington, I very carefully looked to the left for traffic, judging the distance of the oncoming headlights to be sufficient for me to get across the two lanes to the median. Just as I stepped (staggered) out into the street, a car coming from the right brushed my dress blues so closely, well I had my "liberty cuffs" turned out and the car brushed one down. I landed on my bum, but dress blues were surprisingly resistant to dirt and Wellington was a "clean" city, so I continued with my "pub crawling" only slightly skinned. It seems that at the time, beer was delivered to the cellars of pubs in tank trucks, with a hose coupling in the sidewalk. Having landed under one such tanker, I was in no rush to continue with my experiences with the first non-American city to host overnight.

I'm sure that anyone from NZ or Australia would find this quite amusing. Americans with experience overseas also. I still hold New Zealand in very high regard, although I have not been in contact with anyone there for 30 plus years. I continued to "partake" until I turned 21, at which time I learned just how bad the stuff actually tasted and what it did to my long term knowledge of electrical equipment. Haven't touched a drop in over 20(?) years.

.

 

[hman]

I recall the bus ride from the airport to the R&R center in Sidney. It was a real pucker-up moment the first time the driver took a left turn at an intersection (at speed)!

 

[Nogoingback]

It's only amusing because you didn't step out a little further and become road kill. I came VERY close an accident
with a rental car in England for exactly the same reason. Started to enter the intersection and checked my self:
the car coming from the right missed me by inches.

 

[Janderso]

My wife and I spent two weeks in London two years ago.
I can see how easy it would be to get run over due to looking in the expected direction.

 

[DavidR8]

Yikes! A close call to be sure.
Years back I spent a day on St Maarten. Rented a car to see the island. I knew they drove on the left so I did some research on adapting to the new orientation.
What I did not expect was to get a left hand drive car.
That completely messed up any potential I had of not screwing up.

 

[MrWhoopee]

Always look BOTH ways. I once witnessed an accident where a driver was crossing a one-way street. He looked in the direction of traffic to be sure it was clear before proceeding. As he pulled out from the stop, he was struck by a wrong-way driver.

On my second visit to Jamaica, I had decided to rent a car and drive myself around. During the ride from the airport to the hotel, I was reminded of the nature of the roads, drivers and traffic. I hired a car and driver for about the same price as a rental car.