Chinese collet sets

[GeorgeGreek]

I have found in the Chinese market complete sets of collets ER 11 and ER16 for about $25 and collet holders for $16.
The runout they claim is that of the German DINm but is it so?
Does anybody have experience on the subject?
Grasp the oppportunity to wish all a happy New Year...

George

 

[goldstar31]

I have no idea of the accuracy but I have a set of ER16's on my Unimat clone and a set of ER25's on my Myford together with a set of genuine Imperial Myfords.

The test surely is to establish how accurate your newly acquired 'Unimat' is then if it 'clocks' OK move onto the ER16's. What I can say is that they are a vast improvement on a cheapo pair of lathe chucks and tailstock chucks- and obviously the running centre.

I'd buy- as I have said.

Happy machining in 2014

Norman

 

[jwcnc1911]

well, i honestly prefer to buy US made whenever possible... having said that:

I have experience with this seller:
http://stores.ebay.com/CME-TOOLS?_rdc=1

I have bought about 40 CAT40 holders and about twice as many ER16 end ER32 collets. I have been well pleased with the products. That's the reason I go back to that seller. I have tried a few other sellers, but I have bought enough to trust this seller.

That runout thing will be hard to prove, as you will probable check it in your spindle instead of between centers. I have one machine that literally has zero runout, I can chuck a tram bar and at 10 inches a 50 millionths indicator shows no movement. Another machine that show about .0005in - which for my work is still tolerable considering the cost of a spindle rebuild.

I have bought everything from technik to Bilz, the chinese holders i have now... i can't tell any difference in the finish machined part.

I guess that's a long answer to say that in my experience it's trial and error, find a seller that gets good ones and stick with them.

 

[stevehuckss396]

I have found in the Chinese market complete sets of collets ER 11 and ER16 for about $25 and collet holders for $16.
The runout they claim is that of the German DINm but is it so?
Does anybody have experience on the subject?
Grasp the oppportunity to wish all a happy New Year...

George

I purchased a set of ER11's a few years back. Runout was said to be .0006 or less. The best one was in spec and they ranged to as bad as .0035 runout. I tossed them in the trash and spent about $135 and the worst one was .0004 and I suspect some of that was the cheap holder. Save you pennies for a decent set.

 

[GeorgeGreek]

Thank you all for kind and informative response.
My best wishes for a machinist s new year,

George

 

[Kaleb]

This is why I've become quite fussy about my tooling choices in recent times. Would only get Chinese stuff if I can't find anything else or cannot afford the alternative. Even Taiwanese tooling is something I approach with caution.

 

[Krutch]

I have a set of the Chinese ER11 collets and have had no issues with them. If you are working in .00001" then go buy the Royal collets. Collets are only as good as the holder and spindle tolerances. The best collets won't help a bad spindle/holder taper.
Most hobby machines may not be able to hold the tolerances for the most expensive tooling. At lest the older machines, anyway.

 

[goldstar31]

I'm sure that I've mentioned this all before but I've got one of these lathes which is old, short of paint and lives in an old wooden hut but is far more accurate than it looks. And I have two sets of collets for it- and a set of homemade ones that old Sparey wrote about when I was a kid in RAF 31( The Goldstars) Squadron way back in 1948!

The best collets are Imperial- made by Myford to very close tolerances but they are little use for first operation machining because ordinary leaded steel etc is perhaps 3 thous down in nominal diameter. These awfully expensive collets will not hold and if tightened to grip, the risk of cracking is high.

So what does a hopefully wise old guy use- for most things? Clearly, these so called cheap and nasty ones -from somewhere in the Orient?
My best set come out for stuff like precision ground bar or what we Brits call silver steel.

But let's move on a wee bit? I have a collection of about three or four self centring 3 jaw chucks. My best one is the best one because I don't use it for holding rough metal or do daft tricks like holding things with the tips of the jaws. That is a job for the worn and much older chucks and probably a packing piece or a stop.

These, if you follow the pattern are the sort of thing which raises interminable questions about how to recondition worn chucks that- if the truth be known- have been misused and can rarely be restored.

Perhaps the foregoing will avoid a few misconceptions

Regards

Norman

Oh, collets? I've just remembered that I have a set of 8mm ones as well.:hDe: