I have done the google searches necessary and have found some who have, but they never really followed up on their results (ie. run-out). I have only seen a complete conversion of a Makita to ER 11 and someone somewhere mentioned doing it with ER16. However, ER11 and ER16 rely on either a 6mm or 8mm Makita collet which seems impossible to find other than in Jolly Ol' England or through Elaire. I was unable to find one through the usual Asian websites that had a good enough product description that I felt sure it would work in my Makita model. You can get Chinesium (as AvE would say) ER 11 with both 6 mm and 8 mm shafts that need to be cut way down here. There is an ER11 that is designed for a 6.35 mm shaft, but you need to source your own and hope it truly fits (harder to find than 8mm). These are also found on Amazon if you want it quicker - I am in no hurry. Then there is this...is it ER11 or 16? My goal was to be able to use at minimum, 10 mm endmills, for more quickly clearing pockets. That required an ER16. Then, I thought as long as I am at it, why not look at ER20. I found this ER20 that requires the addition of an 8mm rod, which is easy enough to find. However ER20 has got me thinking that maybe I am crazy or dumb. Am I? Be gentle. The total cost of this experiment is not much, but I am wondering if just an 8 mm precision collet would be the way to go for faster pocket clearing. However, there are some nice cheap 6 mm endmills I am interested in using and if I purchased both the 6mm and 8mm collets, I could have done the upgrade to ER(WHATEVER I CHOSE) and a complete set of collets for less than the two Elaire collets. FYI: To use ER16 or larger with an 8mm shaft, you need to add your own shaft, but 8mm rod is easy to source.
I made my own collets - my Makita is only supplied with a 1/4" as you may know which is rather limiting. I have a 1/8th, 4mm and 6mm and may make an 8mm. You mentioned wanting to use (at a minimum) 10mm cutters - I would have thought that even at 10mm that would put some stress on the motor though I don't know for sure what its rated to do. See what others have to say.
How do you make your own collets? That sounds interesting. Also, I am glad you caught that "at a minimum" statement. I don't know where that came from. Brain fart I guess. I meant to say my goal was 10 mm, but 12.7 would be cool since I have a lot of those for my router table. I think if you are careful with feeds and speeds it is doable with the Makita. I have been using 1/2 inch router bits with 1/4 inch shank to do some wood working and when I made a large Halloween gravestone out of foam. The problem with most larger router bits is that most do not have a cutting surface over the whole bottom like this: so you really have to ramp them in. With endmills that would not be as much of an issue. Thanks for your input.
The collets I refer to are the Makita types of course, not the ER series. I made them on my lathe and made sure the run-out was at least as good as the original Makita collett. Those "end feed" cutters are typical of the boxed sets you get these days. I have a kit of router bits like that but hardly look at them.I bought some with full width cutting edges at the tip to enable plunging but only those that fit my router.
Interesting project. I don’t have a lathe unfortunately. The ER conversion sounds like a nice solution, but I think runout would be an issue. Adding more variables to the problem is asking for trouble. Perhaps it is time to save up for a water-cooled spindle.
