Makita ER Collet Conversion

Ya I was just having this thought last night, I’m going to have nail the tolerances. As for the VFD spindle I may eventually upgrade to that, but for now I’m just using what I got.

I agree, I doubt I would ever need much more then that either, I just thought it might be an interesting project!

I looked into getting this converter made and the cost is looking pretty high compared to the benefit it would bring, which is unfortunate.

Quotes were looking in the $100 - $150(CAD) range which by the time you also purchase the ER nut and collets just seems way too expensive.

I’m going to keep looking around, but it’s looking like this project is for the fishes.

Hi, the ER11 collet with 6.35mm shaft its only 16USD with shipping.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/6-35mm-1-4-ER11-Motor-Shaft-Extension-Rod-for-engraving-machine-spindle-motor-collet-Free/32442575262.html?spm=2114.30010308.3.253.5VyVVj&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_0,searchweb201602_3_10057_10056_10055_10037_301_10033_10059_10058_10032_10017_10060_10061_414_10062_413,searchweb201603_1&btsid=33a3cd21-92d4-4859-af5e-dad8f3906db2

Could it be a good idea just insert a shat into the ER11 collet and the dewalt collet?

Into the ER11 the shaft is fixed by heating.

I think is a cheaper option than elaire and precitionbits.

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Interesting, I’ve never seen that before. I ended up just getting the Elaire collet and it works great. My original idea was going to be pretty expensive to pursue.

The er16 is around 4usd
spindle motor clamp rod ER16 L 38mm 6.35mm shaft motor lengthened clamping knife engraving machine # C20-ER16-38L 1/4 1pcs
http://s.aliexpress.com/n6zq2eY3

And you can use 1\8, 1\4 and 10mm bit, the edge finder is 10mm, thats the reason of my interest

Hi guys

This is what I’ve done

I bought a ER11 C8 100 mm and cut it around 25.4 mm
, then neatly slip it in the 8 mm MAKITA collet

It extends 25 mm past MAKITA nut I’m going to repeat the process with a ER16 as well

I’ll test for run out etc and report



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How did this work out for you?

Hey Jared ,

it worked out fine,im stoked with the outcome and being able to use the ER11

i bought all the collets available for the makita . Makita Australia had some and I got them through Mitre10 , but thats only 5 collets,

I had lots of odd bits , like 1 mm tip on a 2 mm shank, So i can now use all my old bits in the ER11 setup,

Depending on the bit and stick-out , Im looking at an extra 50 mm minimum from the collet nut of the makita, If i have 50 mm of bit stickout then i’m 75mm – 3 inches from drill tip to spindle nut,

Im sure if I run this at sensible feeds and speeds Ill be fine, but of course there’s the chance stuff will break if I’m not careful,

Ive got 110mm clearance from board to X carriage so any run-out this conversion causes is nothing compared to the movement i get by hanging a 5.75" Linear Z off the poor little x carriage V wheel setup.

Cost, $$ well i just bought a C8 ER11A 100L from ebay for around $12-15, iirc

I also bought a C10 ER16A 100L to see how it goes, that was $30 AUD and was an OCD buy,

this ER11 really makes the Makita more versatile with bit options,

cheers

grego

2 Likes

Hi Greg,

I’m thinking of doing the same you did, but I can’t figure out the overall lenght of your C8 ER11 collet and where to cut. Can you tell me?

The C8 er11 was 100 mm long as bought, I left 25 mm on it , I cut 75mm off ,
I left enough on the stem to go right into the makita so the collet wasn’t clamping the end of the stem,
I placed the stem into a drill and cut it spinning using a 1.6 mm cutting wheel on my grinder, my idea was it would make a neater cut and reduce any balance issues i might get just cutting it with a hacksaw,
a gram of weight out of balance at 30,000 rpm would/could cause a violent wobble,

this last step is quite debatable but it made me feel better :slight_smile:

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I’m in the process of doing the same.I also went one step further and installed locking collars to the shafts so that I can adjust the tool heights in a more uniform manner for my auto tool zero system. mY overall tool length s about 3 3/4" long. I am also running these with my Hatachi 12c along with sawed down ER16-12 collets. I’m in the process of installing a ER20-16 in the Hitachi by cutting the shaft down to one inch and tapping the hole out to 10 mm, then taking one of my sawed off ER16 shafts and turning it down and threading it so that I can screw/red loctite it to the ER20 collet so It will fit my Hitachi’s 12mm collet.

i got one made, balance is fine, very slight vibration, but that is to be expected, i will be taking some of the surface around the threaded part , that will hopefully remove any vibration, run-out is 0.34 mm

it is an ER16 got it on ebay with a set of collets 0.5 up to 12 mm, 0.5 gradation

So this is something available on ebay? Happy with the upgrade?

the collet set was on ebay from a german seller, it was the only place that offers 12mm collet for an Er16 chuck
the chuck was from a different seller i had to bore it out and cut a thread so it could screw on the makita router, all in all the result is very good , i had a few drilling taskes to do with diffrent size bits that i could not hold on to with a standerd 1/4" and 1/8" collets, it is nice to have the confidence that i could use any bit ranging from 0.5 to 12.0 mm

collet set

collet chuck

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did you measure runout?

yes i did, it was about 0.34 mm witch is to be expected

image

I’m looking for the thread size on the Makita spindle. Do you happen to remember what it was? I saw one place reference M17-1 and another 5/8-20.