When practicing machining, the workpieces you drill, cut, shape, and otherwise manipulate can come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. You must have the right tools on hand to have complete control over each workpiece and perform the job to your own and your clients’ expectations. One such tool every machinist should have is a collet extension. This guide on collet extensions will cover what they are and why they are important.

What Are Router Bits?

You should know what router bits are before we delve into collet extensions. The term “router bits” refers to bits machinists use to make joints, grooves, and profiles. Many projects require the router bit to reach further depths than they normally can. As a rule of thumb, you should be able to fill most of the shank in the collet without allowing the router bit to drop off.

In some cases, properly installing the router bit into the router doesn’t provide enough accessibility for a given project, though.

What Is a Collet Extension?

A router collet extension makes life easier in a situation where you need to fit the bit into a longer crevice. The router collet extension lengthens your router bit’s reach without jeopardizing safety. You install one just like a router bit and lock it in place with an appropriately sized wrench.

Why Are Collet Extensions Important?

Collet extensions can be helpful if you use deep grinds or grooves, employ jigs on planar sleds, or utilize templates. A typical collet extension will have a collet to hold a router bit securely and another bit to place into the router. This tooling system allows you to add extra access to every router bit.

Hopefully, this guide helped explain what collet extensions are and why they are important. Utilizing a collet extension offers you a significant amount of adaptability and flexibility for your machining while keeping you and your workpieces safe. At DZ Sales, we provide high-quality collet extenders and many other tools and accessories that fit your machining needs. Feel free to contact us through our website if you have any questions about our products.