Shop Notes #2: Spiral bit --Collet loosening

Hey, try this… Get one of those little rubber balls inside rails and stiles as spacers fo the panel. Drop it in your collet before you put your bit in, then tighten up the bit—tightly. The spacer balls keep the bit from bottoming out on the collet, and then they won’t make the collet loosen up.

I hope this works. I use them in all my routers.

God Bless,
Hawg

-- Saving barnwood from the scrapyards

This assumes a US spec router with US spec collet.

1. Make sure your bits are in US measurements to match the US spec collet on the router. If the bit is a little small IE 6mm or 12mm The collet may bottom out before fully grasping the bit.
2. Measure the diameter of the router bit with a micrometer or caliper. it should be 1/4” or 1/2” (6.35mm, 12.7mm) Replace the bit if it is small. Not tightening your collet once and having it spin could have removed some material making the shaft too small.
3. Try a new up-cut router bit. (I dobut this is the problem if your measurement above is OK but it is cheaper to try than a new router and there wouldn’t much harm in a second up-cut bit.
4. I would try a new collet although since you have tried two I doubt this is the problem, but again its cheaper than a new router.
5. Last if all else fails replace / repair the router. If the router can’t properly hold an up-cut bit it will eventually fail while holding other profiles and you won’t be able to trust your settings.

-- Che.

I don’t know if you have checked this but the slot on the collet must line up exactly with the slot on the insert or else the insert will not be able to squeeze down on the bit. I often have to line them up witha samll bladed screwdriver to be sure they will close.

Regards
Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Spaceballs are great for routers as Hawgnutz mentions.

-- Still learning everything

Try cleaning your collet, sometimes they get gummed up.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

I just use an “O” ring in the base of the collet. It wont fll out bu accident.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Hawg,
Though I read what you worte I can not understand what you want to tell me. But for my poor English perhaps I made you misunderstand what is happening to my router.
The trouble of mine is not bottoming but bit moving outward. —Setting it underneath a router table, upward.
In this case, is rubber ball available ?

Che,
1 I bought all the tools from US, so nothing is wrong. Bit is from Lee Valley, router is from Amazon.
2 Bit size must be exactl 1/4’’ as far as I can see with my caliper. But this must be the most likely. From the begining of my use, the trouble happened. So if the shaft is little small it is defective.

-- Satoru Nakamaru, Japan ---It takes twenty years to make an overnight success. -- And if my English is strange or incorrect, please tell me.