So my first router came in, it is the cheap Chinese $20 800w kind, don’t hate me, I’m on a tight budget and consider it a temporary solution to try things out but I found very very little information in regards of people using it with the MPCNC.
I don’t know the magic of collets. It seems like they are often sold specifically for the router they are intended for, and the ones for things like the dewalt are made by small shops, that specialize in the collets. I imagine they have non-standard thread sizes, or maybe the ID is non-standard.
Those ER collets fit in specific collets. I doubt they would work with the router on it’s own.
There are bit “extensions” that fit in a 1/4" collet, and give you an ER setup. Some people have had success, others have had a lot of “runout” and flex.
Bits are tricky. The geometry is very particular and a bit meant for hand routing may not be good at plunging, and a bit that is good at drilling won’t be any good at milling from the side. Something with a 1/4" shank would be a good place to start. If you can find one with some history of being used in a CNC router, then you’ll be off to a good start.
I just hope you don’t waste more money trying to make the $20 router work.
My plan is to upgrade to Makita in the future and use the cheapo one for a router table, but isn’t the design including the bit holding part a carbon copy of the Makita?
I’ve seen people use this particular tool in CNC but I’m just uncertain what endmill to get - and by that I don’t mean the type but the shaft dimension. 1/4" (6,35mm) doesn’t seem to be a common size when it comes to end mills. I’ve only seen 6mm when looking for one… so I’m a bit confused about that part.
I am not sure what country you are in but maybe walk into the local Box home center and bring your router and see if they have the display units and if the collets are there just to try and see if they would fit. Some Home Depots the display units are stripped down. Not sure if they put out that way or parts magically disappear?
My experience with cheap tools is that the cost of a cheap tool is the cost of the cheap tool, plus the cost of the expensive tool to replace it.
You’ve run into a fundamental problem with knock-offs. It might have copied the major specs of the Makita, so it might fit in the same shoe, or mount the same way, but the collet might or might not be the same.
The one you show there with the single slot is unusual. Most collets have multiple slots (At least 2) so that they keep the bit centered as it tightens. If this is designed with the one that it appears to, I would expect to see unacceptable runout values, or variations in runout. At the very least, that’s not a collet that I would want to use for CNC purposes.
If you can get an I.D. on the collet mount (The hole in the shaft that the nut tightens onto) then we can compare it to see if the Makita collet that Ryan sells will work.
Yes, the stuff on Ali is going to be metric only. that’s one reason that it’s nice to have a selection of collets. 3mm is not close enough for 1/8". You might get it to fit, but it won’t be right, and you’ll get weird stuff happening. If you get a 3mm collet, you need 3mm bits. Same of course for 6mm and 1/4".
I tried to find more details on that router for you.
All I could find was it ships with a 1/4" collet. No mention of any available collets that can fit it. During that quick research, I did come across a lot of reviews about the router getting really hot. I had a spindle do that and it partially melted the PLA holding the spindle on. You can imagine what happened after that. I’d watch it very closely while using it.
Those are supposed to have a very high runout because they only have one slit. I decided against them in the end when building my MPCNC. But please tell me how the 8mm works out please because I don’t want to buy the 40€ collet for just one endmill.
and thanks in advance 
