Check your collet taper before you blame the tool holder

Saw two guys this week scrap parts in Dayton because they swapped in a brand new ER collet without wiping down the taper, a little chip or dried coolant in there throws runout off by 0.002 and you chase it for hours. Took me 10 minutes with a clean rag and some air to fix the same issue on our Haas last Thursday. Anyone else had a mystery finish problem that was just a dirty collet seat?

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lewis.brian1mo ago

Had the same thing bite me on a VF2 a couple years back. Finish went all swirly on a batch of aluminum parts and I spent half a day messing with speeds and feeds before I pulled the holder and saw a dried crust of coolant sitting right on the taper. Wiped it with a rag, hit it with air, ran a tenths indicator on it and the runout dropped right back to where it belonged. Now I keep a little brush and a can of air at the bench and clean the seat every single time I swap a collet, takes ten seconds and saves a whole lot of head scratching. It is almost always the dumb stuff that gets you.

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