Hi All anybody had an issue with 1/4 inch router bit falling out of a Makita router.The router is a few years old and done a lot of work and the collet I have used for many years as well.I started to carve this morning and the bit came out and destroyed the expensive wood I was carvings I thought is was me just being lazy and not tightening the bit ,so I set another piece of expensive wood in ,tightened the collet very tight with both spanners and went we’ll till about 20 mins into the carve and out it comes again,.I might add about 3 mins into this carve I banged into the emergency stop,my error, but was able to restart again and at that time no issues.Yesterday I was doing a lot of surfacing with the McFly.So would any body have an idea?Really appreciate it.
Possibly you cut a rather deep and narrow slot? And possibly with a down cut or compression bit? What can happen is the chips are compressed in the slot and don’t let go of the bit. Try to design the cutting as a pocket that the bid is not held in the slot. In order to have tabs at the bottom of your cut only the last one to 2mm you need for the tabs should be cut as a contour (No tabs available for pocket cuts), the rest should be cut as a pocket with at least A width of 1.5 of the cutting bit diameter.
Could that be it?
Collets are a consumable item - they do wear out. If you are having problems with a collet, your first step should be to replace it and see if the problem persists.
If it does, then continue looking at the collet nut and the spindle shaft.
If the problem is fixed, throw the old collet away.
Things which will cause tooling to slip:
- not fully tightening — we recommend using the button only to hand-tighten things, then fully tightening with a pair of good quality wrenches
- inserting the tool all the way so that it bottoms out — the tool warming up and expanding will then cause the tool to be pushed out
- a worn collet
- using a too large collet/tool too small for collet
- dust/oil interfering with securing the tool
I was doing a roughing pass so no tight channels,I will replace everything and do my next carve on some cheap wood.I was wondering can the bits grind down a bit on the shank,I need to check a new bit…
The collet and router shaft work together to tighten on your router bit. The router shaft is an inclined plane on the inside. The collet is cut in sort of a W pattern. As you tighten the collet nut that is pressing the collet and bit up the inclined plane to tighten it and secure the bit.
So there are a couple of things that can cause this.
- As already mentioned the collet is just wore out. Although a consumable it should last the life of the router.
- The bit must be inserted at least the length of the collet. The bit gets its best chance of tightening properly if the bit is inserted at least to the top of the collet. Also never push your bit all up in the router shaft because it will not tighten properly because it has no where to go as the collet nut pushes the collet and bit up.
- The collet and/or router shaft is dirty inside. I use brake cleaner to clean the collet and nut. I spray brake cleaner on a qtip and clean the inside of the router shaft.
- Depending on the length of the bit very long bits tend to rotate out of round causing excessive vibration. The excess vibration can cause your collet nut to loosen and have your bit and collet slip and make the bit loose. I have a 4" OAL bit that when I use it I stop every few minutes (pause) and tighten the collet nut. If I dont it has come loose and the bit slipped. For a normal bit it could be dirty and cause it run out of round. Out of round makes vibration and vibration can loosen the collet nut and collet.
Start with cleaning the router shaft, collet, collet nut and cleaning your bits. You said in the post you are using 2 wrenches and that is required on Makita/C3D routers to get a tight fit on the bit. When you get the parts clean make sure they are oil and grease free. The collet and collet nut should be dry with no lubricant at all.
Thanks Guy,I will give the shaft a good clean in the morning but see if I can get a new collet tomorrow
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