[reuelt]

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the information!!
View attachment 403473
This is an image of the thing - it was listed a long time back by ereplacement parts (bottom pic and I hope I am not in violation of any of the rules of this forum), but no longer. The groove near the business end is for a circlip/springclip to keep the cone with the collet. I ran an "Image" search as well using these pics, but with no hits! I know I am not imagining the thing because I have a physical specimen, so someone must have made it at some point!

View attachment 403474

If you still have the collet nut, you might want to try your luck with similar collets with circlips for Porter-cable routers.

Steel Replacement 1/4In 1/2InRouter Collet part for Porter Cable 42999 / 42950 | eBay

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If you suceed, pls report back to help fellow Craftsman users.

 

[reuelt]

Hi Tom, Reuel,
Thank you both for the reply and advice. I do have a new DeWalt, which is excellent (soft start, variable speed, etc.), but I have a little table for the Craftsman, which works well for what I do. I also have the collet in the picture, as well as the other simpler cone type which only has the one slit on the side that allows the cone to compress and hold the bit, but I was hoping to add some flexibility to use smaller diameter shaft bits. I have a couple of Ryobi bits on order which I am hoping will work with the 25070. If not, I will try the Makita XTR01 cone, if I can find it at a reasonable price, and then onto the Porter Cable. The big difficulty with trying different collets is I am not sure of the thread specifications on the Craftsman shaft, but will be trying to get that information over this weekend.

Will post what my results are when I do. Again, thank you both for the helpful advice.

Just for information.
I bought a 0700 Trimmer (a clone of Makita RT700CCX4) as an alternative router to the VFD spindle on my small CNC router.
In AU this trimmer came with only 1/4". 1/8" collets.

I bought a third party 3-piece set of 3/8", 8mm and 6mm collets since I wanted 8mm badly for a drag knife and cardboard compression ball and 6mm for all my endmills bits.

Turned out that I had to put the 8mm and 6mm bits on a drill and grind off (using diamond grind stone) the end from 10.5 mm to 10mm diameter to fit my router. 3/8" collet is just a cone so that already fits.
So now I have 1/8", 6mm 1/4". 8mm (about 5/16"), 3/8" collets for this trimmer.

(This trimmer has 65mm diameter and fits my ER11 VFD mounting block which also has 65mm diameter. And ER11 can support max. bit size of 7mm)


1/8" and 1/4" OEM collets

6mm, 8mm and 3/8" adapted third party collets

 

[reuelt]

Reuel,

Would any of the bits be the same diameter as the Dremel bits? I suspect the Dremel is 1/8, but not sure!(?)

Thanks

Dremel bits definely have 1/8" shanks.

My CNC endmill bits (that are for metal milling) were all bought with 6mm shank.

In Australia, most router bits sold have 1/4" or 1/2" shanks. Dremel bits has 1/8" shanks.
Bits with 3mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm or 12mm shanks are also available but are rare, more expensive and only sold in a few retaillers here.
(Aussies must have still refused to be completely metricated!)