I'm in a situation where I'm very pressed time wise and need to buy a Milwaukee M12 right angle die grinder right away. I've wanted one but held off because of the run time issue but now I need one. I seem to remember there's some issue with the collett being a weird size or taper so I need to know what collet I will need for the die grinder to use a 1/4" 3M Rolok holder. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Need some Quick advice on correct collet for M12 Die Grinder
- Thread starter i4ni
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humpty
Well-known member
I haven't had any issues using a Roloc in mine, the only issue I have heard is people complaining about the collet being tight and not releasing. Milwaukee used a different style of collet, it doesn't act like the standard collet found in standard die grinders, in this one, when you loosen the collet nut it has not released the tool yet, you need to spin it open until it is tight again and loosen it once more and then it will be free.
humpty
humpty
tyyost
Well-known member
It wasn’t the die grinder that had an issue, it was the polisher that has the bizarre metric thread. Any 1/4“ shank roloc holder will work, the better the brand the longer they last. I’d suggest staying with 2” discs as the 3” ones in mine really burn the battery life quickly.
Thunderpigeon
Well-known member
Watch this:
PugetDude
ALLIANCE MEMBER
All you have to do is back the collet nut out and it pops the arbor right out. Playing whack-a-mole with the little collet wrench isn't the way to do it. Makes me question his intelligence.
Thunderpigeon
Well-known member
Are you referring to the video?
Black300zx
Well-known member
As mentioned, it's a standard 1/4" collet with a 2-stage release (just like many craftsman routers).
PugetDude
ALLIANCE MEMBER
yes.
Thunderpigeon
Well-known member
Did you watch the entire video??
PugetDude
ALLIANCE MEMBER
No, I gave up after watching him beat on the collet in frustration. Didn’t need to watch his entire journey to self discovery.
Thunderpigeon
Well-known member
You should have watched the whole video. You jumped to a conclusion without context.
mrjaw14
Well-known member
I have both M12 die grinders. they accept 1/4 shanks no problem. it is a two-stage removal, which is fine once you use it. I will say that I'm disapointed that only smaller well balanced tools seem to work. Instructions say "optimized for 2" and smaller accessories" and I agree with that. they vibrate all over the place with 3" wire wheels, cut off disks, etc. I think there's some sort of overload protection as well that will shut the tool off and make you pull the trigger again. . they have their place, but pneumatic replacement it's not.
SuperSonic
Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2014
- Messages
- 22
Wow this guy in the video above is just not intelligent.
Loosen the collet until it gets tight again, then use the wrenches to loosen more and it pops right out. It takes a standard 1/4" shank so I am not sure what this thread is even about.....
I own a fab shop and we have half a dozen of these things and they get daily use. Completely replaced every pneumatic pile of **** die grinder we had.
Loosen the collet until it gets tight again, then use the wrenches to loosen more and it pops right out. It takes a standard 1/4" shank so I am not sure what this thread is even about.....
I own a fab shop and we have half a dozen of these things and they get daily use. Completely replaced every pneumatic pile of **** die grinder we had.
The reason for the thread was I needed to do some delicate grinding in a remote location without any services in a small window of time (like right NOW). The best option was to go with a battery powered device but to reiterate a while back I thought I had read about a collett issue of some kind with the Milwaukee and I wanted to make sure it would work with the air tool mandrels i already have. So I figured I'd save myself some time searching by asking the Garage Journal guys but I never got any answers in my time frame so I had to act quick. In my frantic research I found out there was no collett issue with the die grinder after all but.......... I already have 7 air die grinders, a Dumore electric, and some Dremmel's so I decided rather than getting another die grinder I'd get the Milwaukee Sander/Polisher which would take care of my dilemma and I'd have a tool that would serve other purposes. Oddly as someone stated above the Sander/Polisher is the tool I had read about with the funky mandrel 
lol . But it does come with a Rolok attatchment. Haha
lol . But it does come with a Rolok attatchment. HahaMisterFixIt1952
New member
If it's so easy then why did my nut come all the way off leaving me to have to pry the collet out? Does this die grinder use a standard collet & nut like an er8 or er11?
Rusted Nut
Well-known member
I have had the same issue.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
The collet on mine got stuck recently too. Was a real pain in the *** to get out
Black300zx
Well-known member
Are your collets assembled/snapped into the nut correctly? It's a standard 2-stage collet like Craftsman (and others I assume) use on their routers.
PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
It's a SELF releasing collet. It's not STANDARD. Watch the video above... THE WHOLE video.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Ok, so I just went down to the garage and looked at mine...
I was sliding the collet into the tool, loosly placing the nut on, inserting the bit, then tightening down the nut. I had no idea the collet snapped into the nut.
That works way better
Black300zx
Well-known member
What's interesting is that my M12 RADG had it snapped together from the get-go, so it was never a question for me. Did yours come disassembled?
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Lol, I doubt it, but never know what happened along the way. I also lent it to a buddy for a while, so maybe he popped it apart and I never thought about it.
Zeus36
Well-known member
Zeus36
Well-known member
Shorter version: