I very recently acquired a small, used vertical mill having a spindle bored out for Morse Taper 3.

Amongst the tooling which came with the mill is what I take to be a collet holder. Unfortunately, the holder came without any collets and I do not know which collet system (or size) it uses. I am thinking that this holder might be for ER-16 collets, but as I am new to metal milling and cannot be absolutely certain of same I am hesitant to order such collets on mere suspicion alone.

I am wondering is if any of you might be able to assist me in identifying this collet holder and the type of collets it uses. To this end I have attached a number of photographs of same.

I can tell you the following:

• The holder is labeled “3 x 16 – 1492” in the groove on the side of the MT3 shank.
• The holder is retained in the mill spindle by an M-12 threaded drawbar.
• The absolute diameter of the opening in the nose piece of the collet holder at the front end is 12mm, but in reality the shank of a standard 12mm drill will not quite fit through this hole.
• It might be difficult to see from my photograph, but the nose piece does have a retaining clip within.
• I cannot get my vernier caliper down into the nose piece directly, but by using a piece of measured paper I estimate the taper in the nose piece to be 16mm at its widest opening.
• In the rear section of the holder (connected to the MT3 shank), the maximum diameter of the taper (at the widest portion to the front) is 16mm.
• The nose piece, itself, does not rotate, but is pulled down tight by turning the captive threaded ring on the main portion of the holder. This action would appear to apply a straight compression effect without twist.

Edited By JasonB on 14/11/2015 16:38:21

Ah, but of course if I HAD any of the collets to go with the holder I wouldn't be so confused

Here is the best image I can make of the little logo stamped into the side of the tool. It looks to me like a wrench within a square with rounded corners.