MT3 or R8?

[zerodegreec]

Whats the best to go with if I had a choice of two mini mills with the same specs. I have a MT3 drill press right now and it does seem odd having to beat out a spindle. I have never used a R8 but from what I understand they are self releasing?

[bill south]

That's easy.
R8!!! There is a lot more tooling available for the R8 which is the "old" bridgeport standard.
Good Luck.
Bill

[TClarke]

R8 are not self releasing but the they're larger and hence stiffer. Go with R8.

[BobWarfield]

Go to eBay, category "Manufacturing & Metalworking":

- Search r8: 1052 results

- Search mt3: 254 results

Game over, thank you for playing.

Cheers,

BW

PS FWIW, I have heard R8 has much less advantage in Europe.

[serriadh]

Ebay.co.uk shows a slightly smaller bias: 341 results for R8 vs 144 MT3 in "Metalworking/ Milling/ Welding". This isn't reflected at all in the stocks of a few online second-hand dealers who seem to stock old morse taper tooling almost exclusively.

[RobbieBeggar]

In this particular situation, I would go with MT3 since you already have MT3 tooling. Having R8 in a mini mill doesn't buy much more in terms or ridigity. Unless you have plans in the future of a bigger/heavier machine that could use R8.

[alexander m]

In my opinion I would prefer the r8, because it is more versatile. For example you could spent 12 dollars and get an adapter so that you can fit a mt3 in to the r8, and to the extent of my knowledge an adapter that has the opposite effect dose not exists, and if it did it would be a large impractical device. In addition to all previous arguments, the r8 collets and end mill holders are generally half the prices of the mt3 and they are no more accurate, robust or convenient then the r8 to justify the cost.

[MrWild]

At thew moment I have a MT3 spindle being hogged out to a NMTB30 taper. Why? Just an experiment on HSM with an X2 and I have a LOT of NMTB30 tooling. My other X2 that is in the beginning stages of CNC retrofit was bought with an R8 spindle. While I voted "other" to be different, the R8 is the clear choice for the small hobby machinist.