Sat
Jan
12
2008
Christmas R8 Collet Toolchest
I wanted to build an R8 collet holder for my dad’s mill. So that was my idea for his Christmas present. I didn’t do a very good job of documenting the progress, so here are a few pics of the final project.
The little photos were sunk into the wood with my CNC machine. The black lettering was an isolation operation on my CNC machine. The entire top was coated with a clear epoxy resin. The smoky black around the name “Dale Wolin” was a result of what I learned was called thermal runaway. The epoxy resin heated up because the pour was about 1/2 inch think. Here is a closeup of the the photos.
I chose some spring loaded internal hinges so that the lid would open by itself and stay open.
Here is the center of the project. The R8 collet holder spins on a 1.25” bearing countersunk into the bottom of the wood. It is difficult to see, but there is engraved into the wood a label for each of the collets.
The drawers ended up being way smaller than I had anticipated but still functional. It was very difficult to mount the slides in the narrow openings. The sliding action was not very stellar so my dad actually tweaked them and made them slide like glass. Great job dad!
I really blew it on the finish. The paint I chose was a one part epoxy resin. It was pretty gloppy and dripped in places. So disappointing considering all the work. But, just like any project, if I were to do it a second time it would be perfect.
