Another collet rack

[kvom]

Because of some fumble-fingering while ordering stuff from Enco, I ended up with a second 5C collet rack. What I needed was an r8 collet rack, but the holes for the 5C are too big.

My intention was to find a piece of "something" to cover the top of the 5C rack and drill smaller holes on the same centers.

Last night at school, both the lathe and mill I normally use were taken over by other students. I told the instructor I would just try to build the rack if he could provide
a) Some material suitable and
b) A sufficiently large drill bit.

He found a piece of white nylon, 6"x8"x1" and recommended that I use that, saying it cut easily.

I clamped it to the table of an open mill and used the DRO to spot drill an array of points 1.5" apart. I ended up with 5 rows of 10 holes each. I then took the piece to the big Clausing drillpress, which has a vise with an 8" opening, "just" big enough. I then spent an hour or so drilling 50 1" holes. The swarf comes up in long frilly ribbons. After deburring the holes it was time to go home.

Today I attached the metal sides to the nylon, and now have a rack for my R8 collets, with lots of holes for future expansion.

 

[BobWarfield]

Your nylon sounds like it cuts a lot like "poly" board. I really like that latter stuff for projects like this. I am always watching the discount stores for sales on little packages of poly cutting boards for the kitchen. They can be gotten quite cheap if you find the right sale and they are handy material that machines pretty well.

Cheers,

BW