VMC Tooling Advice Needed!

[Neale]

It worried me a bit at first, Mike, as my previous mill had an Autolock-style holder. That was on a 2MT shank, though, so not so useful with an R8 spindle (and having used both, I would have R8 over MT anyday). I haven't done any really heavy cutting, but no problems so far. It does mean that I'm not restricted to screwed shank cutters. I mainly use imperial size cutters and I only have metric ER32 collets, but they seem to grip OK. I have wondered about buying a few specific imperial collets to suit my cutters, just to minimise the closure of the collet and get maximum grip. I could imagine that the Autolock would be better for CNC work, where you might want to change cutters and go back to a known Z height setting; CNC conversion is on the plan but still a fair way off for me!

Not sure about the hole in the side. Might have been for some kind of switch box? Access to internal wiring? My machine has a removable panel on the back. The Warco version actually has a couple of 1" or so holes at that point, one each side, so that you can stick a bar through to take lifting strops.

DRO appears to be Newall - decent make, hope you can find a manual for it. It has the 1/2 button for finding mid-lines, so you're in luck there!