VMC Tooling Advice Needed!

[cncJim]

Even threaded shank cutters have enough plain section for a collet to grip - haven't had a problem (although most of my cutters are plain shank anyway).

Ah ok thanks, good to know.

I have a Warco VMC, broadly similar to your machine; I flip the lid open and hold the pulley to "lock" the spindle and that's always worked OK for me.

Yes that is what I had to do to release a cutter that was already in the autolock - It was VERY difficult though (took far longer than it should have), could not for the life of me get a good grip on the pulley. Maybe I will get use to it but I think I will try and come up with a easier solution. Maybe I could make a tool to slip over the "cog" part (or maybe one already exists?).

DRO's are great. I doubt if I've looked at a dial on my VMC more than a half-dozen times since I've had it. No more losing count when you are moving a couple of inches, trivial picking up centre lines with a wiggler, etc.

Wiggler? Is this the tool used to find the edge of the work piece? So to find a centre line I guess you would find the edge of the workpiece with the wiggler, zero the DRO, find the opposite edge and the centre will be half the dro reading?

Jim