Cheap ER collet advice please

[Charles RParticipant @charlesr45326]

Posted by Chris Evans 6 on 15/10/2019 08:45:27:

Plus 1 for ARC and Chronos. A £ more on 6 or 8 collets is forgotten in short time. I use 5C collets on my lathe and have never bought one that was not up to scratch.

Just been looking on their respective websites.

[Charles RParticipant @charlesr45326]

Posted by Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 15/10/2019 11:15:33:

Posted by Charles R on 15/10/2019 01:29:05:

Posted by old mart on 14/10/2019 21:58:26:

Unless you want to use a full range of twist drills, you don't need a full set of collets as milling cutters come in much more limited shank sizes.

A complete ER25 set would be great but I don't want to spend lots on something I may not use that often.

 

As ER collets can be used for both tool and workholding, not buying a set is a false economy.

I bought an ER32 chuck to use on the mill, and intending to get a bolt on chuck for the lathe, bought a full set of collets. The collet chuck was such an improvement that I quickly gave the Clarkson clone away, and bought the lathe chuck. 12 years later, only one of the collets is still in its plastic wrapping. Some of the rest haven't been used much, but it beats having to stop work for a few days to get a £5 part that should have been bought as part of a set.

 

I use the collet chuck for drills when doing jobs that combine milling and drilling. I'm tempted to buy extras of the common ones I use to keep with particular tools, like the edge finder, to speed up changes. I find the idea that hobbyests don't need to work quickly and efficiently very strange.

Arc's Stevensons collet blocks really simplify milling/drilling operations on round parts.

 

The ball-bearing nuts are such an improvement that I bought another pair so that each chuck has its own and the blocks share the third.

 

I have a set of ER11 collets to use with my toolpost spindle lashup; I'm very tempted to convert one of my MT blanks into a holder to use small drills in the tailstock.

Thank you for the info Nicholas.

I'm starting to think the same re. buying a set…it would be very handy, if not now, in the future.

Will look into the other items you mentioned later on tonight.

Edited By Charles R on 15/10/2019 12:15:30

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