WoodCraft Collet

[Jim15]

Hello,
Does anyone have the Woodcraft Collet chuck? I'm having a problem trying to remove it. My knockout bar on a Jet mini lathe doesn't work. It seems the collet MT end has a hole in it and the knockout bar just goes inside the hole and doesn't hit the MT. I must admit I know next to nothing about a collet chuck as this is the first one I've had. Am I overlooking something? Thanks for an help.

 

[loglugger]

Jim
You need a punch or a rod that will go into your spindle that will be big enough to cover the hole in the collet taper and not go into it. You don’t want to mess up the threads in the taper. If you have a long bolt that you can thread into the taper and hit it as long as you are not to ruff might work. All thread might work but it is pretty soft.
Bob

 

[jwoodwright]

Jim, that threaded section of the MT is to prevent the MT coming loose at speed. You use a threaded rod and stop. Tapping on the rod should loosen the MT...

 

[Jim15]

Thanks Bob and John. I will get a bolt and try that.

Thanks again,

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

I had problems getting mine loose when I used it. That was partly what prompted me to go to the Beale.

 

[Jim15]

Thanks for the reply Scott. How is the Beale different? Is the MT end solid? I have two lathes and if I get another I don't want to make the same mistake.

Thanks

 

[Buzz]

The Beale is threaded and goes on the spindle rather than in the morse taper as per the Woodcraft collets. While the Beale seems very popular it does have the drawback of not being easily transferrable between lathes with different spindles.

It is for this reason that I'm waiting on delivery of the Woodcraft collet set, how do you find it performs?

 

[Jim15]

Hi Chris, thanks for the response. The Woodcraft Collet works great, runs very true, but I can't compare it to the Beale as I've never used that one.

thanks