Are MT-3 Tapers common?

[DiamondG Knives]

Im looking at a mill / drill that has a MT-3 taper, will it be hard to find tooling for?
Dont want to get a good deal on a mill and pay out the nose for tooling!

Thanks and God Bless
Mike

[Ray Rogers]

MT-3 tapers are common but not nearly as common as R-8 where milling tools are concerned. R-8 tools flood the market so getting a good deal on them is very easy, and every type of milling tool ever invented is available in R-8. MT-3 tools are easily available but not so much on the cheaper second hand market, and, not every tool is available for MT-3. Also, MT-3 mills are likely to be smaller and lighter than most R-8 mills (even though some pretty small mills accept R-8).

Considering that a general rule of thumb for mills is that you will spend about half the cost of the mill when you buy tools for the mill the choice between R-8 and MT-3 can be significant. But, if the deal you have is terrifically good it could be worth doing ....

[original iron]

Hi Mike,I started out with a three in one machine with #3 morse taper and the ist thing a machinest friend told me was to buy an imitation erickson er-40 collet holder and collet set, that way you are covered from 1/8th to 1 inch in one set of easy and quick to change tooling with no fiddlin with the drawbar every time you change tooling. the er system has a wider range of holding capability per collet than most tooling, so you can chuck up a lot of drill sizes without losing work space to a drill chuck, also a good reason to have a set of 3/8 shank drills. I believe I bought my collet holder and collets from a place called h and h products [hhip] on the web, dont have exact web adress sorry, the whole deal cost me around a hundred bucks plus shipping. I think if you will price individual mt-3 holders you will find this is a pretty good bargain, of course if you go for a name brand set you will be looking at atl least 5 or 6 hundred dollars for the erickson er-40 set.hope this helps ironbasher

[DiamondG Knives]

Thanks guys.
Ray this is a Tieg (sp?) 1hp table top. It is a Mill / Lathe combo that looks to be in used but like new condition for $500. Seem to be about 2 sizes larger than the other table top models Ive been looking at as the travel length is about 3 ft.

Iron, Ill look into H&H thanks for the heads up.

God Bless
Mike