ER 32 Collets

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

Thinking of buying a set of ER 32 collets for the mill it's an MT2 taper any advice on where to buy them would be helpful, will make an adapter for the lathe also.

Regards Alan.

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

[Michael Cox 1Participant @michaelcox1]

I have bought collets from CTC in Hong Kong. Very good prices and quality but postage can add up. Also be aware you may get charged duties, vat and a Post Office fee which adds substantially to the bill. If you can keep each delivery below circa £20 then often these duties and fees do not apply.

Mike

[Ron ValeParticipant @ronvale24328]

ARC EURO are as good as any, and very quick service too

[Tony RayParticipant @tonyray65007]

Holster Tooling on Fleabay are ok too

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I bought a set of ER40 collets for the Myford collet holder I bought for my S7 from

**LINK**

Quick and did a deal.

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

Alan, Have look at this thread

**LINK**

[Mike BondarczukParticipant @mikebondarczuk27171]

Alan, I purchased a complete ER32 set from Amadeal at the same time as my mill and the service was excellent, no connection to the supplier. However, I am still looking for a threaded ER32 adapter to screw straight onto my Myford. Any ideas where I can find one. Mike

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Hi Bogstandard2 Mike, thanks for the link to your ER32 collet holder pages, looks fine to me so will sort out a billet !!Rgds, Emgee

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Alan,

I bought my ER25 collets from arc and have been perfectly happy with them. One of the advantages is that their range includes 0.5mm steps in the smallest sizes. These are essential since, whatever the advertising says, you will not get a 3-2mm collet to grip a 2.1mm drill. The situation is probably worse with the larger ER32 collets.

For my 2MT mill I chose ER25 in preference to ER32 since my mill is not man enough to use 3/4" or 20mm endmills but I do find it useful to hold 1mm drills. ER32 only goes down to 2mm. Also the ER32 chuck is bigger and this uses up some of my already restricted headroom between job and tool. I now find that I tend to leave the ER25 chuck in the mill spindle all the time and use the collets for all drilling as well as milling, even though the collet nut can sometimes get in the way. Obviously these comments refer to my particular mill and modelling requirements.

Rod

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

ER collets are GOOD!

ER32 seems a bit big for a machine with a MT2 quill. You could find the nut getting in the way sometimes, and as Roderick says, it may be difficult to grip really small drill or cutters.

Years ago, when I had a ML7, and a Rodney milling attachment, I bought ER25, from Chronos, and have never regretted it. Since buying a Mill Drill, I use the ER25 collet holder in a 2 -3MT sleeve.

Although I now have collet chucks for the larger lathe, ex Warco, in ER25 and ER32 (I have just 4 collets to extend from the 16mm of ER25 to 20mm; but they are rarely used).

Also made up square and hexagon holders for ER25 and ER32, to use in the vice on the Mill/Drill.

I have made ER25 holders for Taps on a Tailstock Sliding Die Holder mandrel, and for a Floating Holder for Hand Reamers. (For machine reamers made up soft ER32 collets to take 1, 2 and 3MT shanks. Did not change the Topslide set over between boring for the collets, and turning the OD of the collets. Slitting the collets was interesting!)

For drill grinding on my Worden, I made up an ER20 holder. The 1 -13mm collets were expensive, or seemed so!

Making your own holders is a useful exercise in screwcutting.

For all these pieces, I bought the closing nuts and spanners (and the ER20 collets) from Arc Euro Trade.

Possible suppliers (take your choice) Arc Euro Trade, Chronos, Warco, Chester, and others.

Howard

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

ER32 Collet chucks from YSTool on E-Bay. They are marginally cheaper than CTC & seem to have the same quality. For the collets, Arceurotrade are the cheapest individual collets I have seen if you don't want to lash out for a set all in one go.

The MT4 ER32 collet chuck I got from CTC has seen a lot of work over the last 3 years and is still doing well.

Regards,

Richard

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

Thats a good read chaps most informative, I should have said that my mill is a Centec 2B and the lathe is a Colchester Bantam, Gary a member on this forum has nearly finished a riser block for me so height should not be a problem, so does the panel think ER32 or ER25, I will be making a collet holder for the lathe at some point so please bear that in mind.

Al.

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

One thing I meant to ask this may seam a daft question but having never had any collets before, does one set fit all or is it a imp and separate metric set.

Al.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

In theory one (metric) range fits all but in practice I like the Imperials as well. It takes quite a bit to close a 4-3mm ER32 down to 1/8", also you don't have the three handed job of two spanners and stopping the tool dropping out when closing down onto a smaller size. The imperials will lightly hold imperal shanked tooling just by friction leaving your hands free to tighten the nut and stop the spindle turning.

J

 

Edited By JasonB on 13/01/2014 19:20:32

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Alan .204 on 13/01/2014 18:56:32:

Thats a good read chaps most informative, I should have said that my mill is a Centec 2B and the lathe is a Colchester Bantam, Gary a member on this forum has nearly finished a riser block for me so height should not be a problem, so does the panel think ER32 or ER25, I will be making a collet holder for the lathe at some point so please bear that in mind.

I think only you can answer that Alan. It really comes down to the range: ER25 1-16mm or ER32 2-20mm. I use mine for all sorts of workholding, including in the dividing head on the milling machine, so this may be a factor if you have such a thing or a rotary table. The ER 32 will have a bulkier chuck, this may or may not be an issue for you. I'm sure either size will be fine.

Oh, and I completely agree with Jason on the imperial question.  I've got 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" imperial as well as the metric set (also from arceurotrade)

Rod

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 13/01/2014 19:56:26

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

Thanks Rod I've had a think and recon I will go for the ER32 it my well be handier on the lath, also I possess a dividing head, I keep threatening it that I will use it one day.

Thanks to every one who helped with the question. Al.

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

An ER32 chuck is a big thing to hang off a feeble No2 Morse taper .

Overhang of cutters is considerable and the whole stack up of shank , chuck and cutter will often be excessively flexible leading to poor cutting and uncertain sizing .

There is no golden rule but generally speaking when using a collet chuck the actual end mills used should be limited to being not much bigger than the big end of the taper shank and ideally a bit smaller .

Knowing limit of size of endmill select chuck size to suit .

MikeW

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Al;

There is no wrong choice here.

For my Centec 2B, I use my ER25 collets 99% of the time. the 1% is for a boring head, or shell end mill holder, or, once a decade or so, a drill chuck.

One issue that I have found is that the 10mm collet is always in the mill, and it's always the one you want on your 2nd ER collet holder, so I do have duplicates of some of my ER25 collets. (frustrating when you find that you want to use the same collet in two places at once…)

John.

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

Posted by MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 13/01/2014 22:09:41:
An ER32 chuck is a big thing to hang off a feeble No2 Morse taper .

Overhang of cutters is considerable and the whole stack up of shank , chuck and cutter will often be excessively flexible leading to poor cutting and uncertain sizing .

There is no golden rule but generally speaking when using a collet chuck the actual end mills used should be limited to being not much bigger than the big end of the taper shank and ideally a bit smaller .

Knowing limit of size of endmill select chuck size to suit .

MikeW

I have to agree with this. The lighter morse tapers are not the best for milling and i have often seen the no.2 chuck and cutter on my Tom Senior clearly flexing under load. I do notice that the runout is reduced if using end mills rather than 2 flute slot drills.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Using that rule of thumb suggests ER32 will be fine as they only hold upto 20mm which is "not much bigger" than the 17.8mm large end of the taper. Just don't use a 3/4" shank tool with larger cutting width.

J

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

I have been using ER32 on a 2Mt in my Chester Champion 20 V for the last 3 years, but as I am in no great hurry to do ANYTHING these days, I don't try to take big cuts and expect too much from the machine. So far I have had no problems with this setup. Says he touching wood.

Cheers Derek

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

Engineering is usually best compromise using whatever is available at the time so rarely is there a specifically right or wrong answer to questions like this .

The reality is that a No2 Morse taper is not really suitable for milling at all but if that’s all there is make best use of it .

Personally – and by any professional assesment – No2 Morse taper should be limited to 10 mm cutters and ER16 collet chucks .

With light use in home workshops you can get away with bigger cutters and bigger chucks but there has to be a sensible limit somewhere .

In any case as you are probably aware from past postings by other people the Laws of Physics don’t apply to Model Engineers so anything is possible !

Regards ,

MikeW

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

Thanks again chaps I've ordered the ER24 collet and some metric and imperial collets from Arceurotrade will see how I get on when they arrive.

Thanks again Al.

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

I bought mine from rdg and arc and the holder for my lathe from arc. They are a must if you can afford them. It has improved the quality of my work loads.

 

My cutters for the miller can now be swapped between metric and imperial without too much fuss. A big bonus, when your lazy.

 

The only thing I would add is that they are easily damaged when dropped on the floor. Butter fingers!

 

bri

Edited By Boiler Bri on 16/01/2014 20:51:00

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