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Had a brand new endmill shatter on me mid-cut last Tuesday
Was running a tight tolerance pocket in 6061 aluminum and the thing just exploded around 9:30 AM, sent chips flying everywhere. Turns out my collet nut was slightly loose from a tool change earlier - anyone else double check their holders after every swap?
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jennysullivan2mo ago
Used to think it didn't matter that much until I had a holder let go on a finish pass. Definitely changed how I check things now.
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elliot451mo ago
Man yeah that brings back a bad memory. I actually read a thread on Practical Machinist a while back where a guy tested how much runout you get with a slightly loose collet. It was way worse than I thought, like .005" or more even when it still felt snug. Makes total sense your endmill snapped, no chance it was cutting true. @luna891 your old boss probably had the same thing happen just with more dramatic results. I started torquing every collet to a specific number after reading that, not just feeling it out. Saves my tooling and my sanity.
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