Originally Posted by damianks  Am I better off with MT3 or the R8 spindle?
Is one MORE of an "Industry Standard" than the other? |
As a pure novice as far as machining goes, I prefer the R8. There's simply more selection available for mill tooling. R8 collets are cheap. Endmill holders less so. MT3 has cheaper drill chuck arbors (you get one of these with the mill anyway), but the collets and endmill holders are a bit more rare from some of the vendors such as Enco. R8 releases more easily from the spindle although it still requires a rap on the drawbar.
No offense intended to anyone, but the only MT3 tooling I have for my mini lathe is a dead center which is not very useful on the mill. If you have a larger lathe (such as my 12x36) then the tailstock on it may use MT3. But all I have for that is centers and a drill chuck. I fail to see where the common taper is such an advantage except for maybe a boring head being used in the large lathes tailstock as a taper turning set-over device. Additonally, any MT3 tooling for the mill needs to be threaded for a drawbar (except perhaps the drill chuck arbor.)
BTW, it's a bad idea to try to mill with a drill chuck. Unless the chuck is bolted to the arbor (like my $200 Homier drill mill came with) the chuck can come loose from even a drawbar held arbor. Also endmill shanks are hardened and will slip in the hardened chuck jaws.