Tips/Techniques The Darndest Thing

[Tomc938]

So I have noticed that the quill on my XLO 602 milling machine will not travel the full 6" it should. HOWEVER, this only happens when I have a collet (R8) in the spindle. When there is no collet, the quill travels through the full 6" as designed.

Any thoughts? Pretty weird to me, and IDK what could be the cause. (Not that I really need 6" of travel, it's just one of those things that makes my machine better that a Bridgeport.

 

[Susquatch]

Any thoughts?

The only thing I can come up with is that it isn't the collet - it's the drawbar. Perhaps the drawbar is too big around at the top of the spindle and won't go as far down into the quill as a smaller one would.

Put something on top of the drawbar and then pull down the quill and see if whatever you put up there stops at some point indicating that drawbar stopped going down.

If so, some lathe work on the drive at the top of the drawbar might be required.

That's all I got.......

 

[phaxtris]

My first thought as well was the drawbar

 

[YotaBota]

Put something on top of the drawbar and then pull down the quill and see if whatever you put up there stops at some point indicating that drawbar stopped going down.

Another way is if your collet stays tight in the quill when you back off the drawbar, back the drawbar off an inch and see if you get back full travel.

 

[Doggggboy]

So I have noticed that the quill on my XLO 602 milling machine will not travel the full 6" it should. HOWEVER, this only happens when I have a collet (R8) in the spindle. When there is no collet, the quill travels through the full 6" as designed.

Any thoughts? Pretty weird to me, and IDK what could be the cause. (Not that I really need 6" of travel, it's just one of those things that makes my machine better that a Bridgeport.

When the collet is in place does the spindle return to the top, as in the same height without the collet? In other words, is the collet stopping it from going all the way down or all the way up?

 

[jcdammeyer]

I'm don't know specifically how your spindle travels down through the mechanism that makes it turn.
On my mill the spindle has splines and a hole through the middle for the draw bar. I did my best to get a photo of the splined draw bar just before it vanishes down inside the driving pulley. On top of the splined section is the draw bar hex head section. It's smaller in diameter than the spline minimum diameter. (bottom of the spline teeth).

Hopefully this photo shows that. It's possible that inside the XLO 602 that if the draw bar head is right on the edge of the diameter it might bind lower down where the access hole is smaller. I doubt it's the R8 Collet itself.