Spindle collar?

[Naiveambition]

I'm in the process of installing dro on my mill, and now the z axis. My ? Is pertaining to the need for the collar. I know that it is used mainly for depth stop, but since I never use it I'm thinking of lobbing of the front to gain some vision clearance. I have back issues that make it hard to bend over, and while milling, the front of the collar is always blocking my vision, and severely limits my time to machine working around it.

My plan is to use the rear of the collar for my dro, but take off a good chunk of the front. see photo. (The cross hatch area) . Does anyone see an issue that I'm not. Has anyone done this before and what were your results. Does it serve a purpose other than depth stopping

I have the rong fu clone 45 mill drill

 

[bazmak]

The collar or depth stop on my sieg mill broke and I did miss it
However I too have just fitted a vernier scale to the Z axis and
now find there is no need for a depth stop.I just read the vernier scale
Hope this helps regards barry

 

[Naiveambition]

After some looking for potential issues, I'm wandering if the depth stop also does double duty to keep the spindle from over extending. Need to look at parts diagram though they often leave much to b desired. I'm wandering what stops the downfeed ( not powerfeed) when drilling. When milling I never have it that far out so its not an issue

 

[Nick Hulme]

On my RF400DVM the rack which drives the quill downfeed ends before the end of the sleeve it's cut into, you can't over extend the quill.
I think you'll find there is an internal stop on yours, otherwise if the depth nut dropped off the quill could be fed out of the machine ;-)

- Nick