Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

Eh, there's no "recommended big tools for your shop" section anywhere in a manual or update (etc) from FIRST. So I doubt it's 'standard' unless there's a mentor or sponsor who knows what they're doing.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

Perhaps 'standard' was the wrong word. Perhaps 'common' would have been better.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

Quick suggestion if you're looking to play with hex shaft:

Contact a local metal supplier and ask if you can look through their scrap. We have a supplier down the road that has dozens of random pieces of stock that are left over from cutting down 20' lengths. We got quite a few short (smaller than 3') pieces of hex last year for nothing.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

Be aware that if you do this, you might end up with 6061 hex axles. Then you'll suffer months of mockery by all of your friends because of a silly drivetrain failure.

...just a heads up.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

There are no silly drive train failures except for those that are consistently repeated, but it's a very good point about 6061 for use as cantilevered axles.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

6061 is a fine alloy to use. You just need to be smart in the design and do the math to prove you are within proper yield safety margins. Thus cantilevering may not be the best idea, but I can vouch that using 6061 in a simply supported setup has worked fine for us for the past 5 years.

Also as a heads up. For purchasing hex stock from McMaster or any other metal supply store, we have found that the stock is usually oversized by a small amount. This means our 0.5" hex broach is a little too small. A small amount of sanding on each side solves the problem quite readily.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

I've never seen them before, but it looks like those would be used on the mill:
http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=36517
(There's a nice picture there that should make a lot of sense if you've had any machining experience)
I don't know for sure, and maybe someone who actually has used these before can give a more educated answer, but my best guess would be that you slide the collet inside the block, insert the piece of hex shaft, and then use the closer ring on the back to tighten the collet around the metal in addition to keeping it from sliding out of the block while in use.*

*again, best guess. If someone knows for sure how to use these, please correct me, because I'm curious as well.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

You install a collet on a lathe or mill to secure parts, as opposed to something like a three jaw chuck. The cone shape of the collet squeezes the work piece in place as it is tightened into the lathe or mill.

I'd think a hex collet would probably be used on a lathe. Can't see much utility in replacing your mill's tooling with a spinning hex shaft.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

The idea is to place a collet in a hexagonal shaped collet holder, which is then placed in a mill vise. This lets you index the work piece to six accurate positions for milling the sides of the hex into round stock, without the need for a dividing head or indexer.

Re: Hex Axle- How to
 

Oh, I forgot to read the context of the thread around it and just saw a perfectly normal looking collet. Thanks for the informative post.