Cheap R8 collets

Surprises? Depends on your expectations.

I ordered a set of MT3s 1/8" to 3/4" from a manufacturer, and 1 had a different drawbar thread size. When I called them, they sent me another one FOC, so I got an extra collet for what the set cost. As for tolerance/accuracy, they're just fine.

If you really don't want surprises, spend 4-10 times as much per collet. Bad experiences are when the supplier sends a replacement that's worse than the fuctup one(s).

Don't use carbide endmills or drills or boring heads at more than 22k RPM with the cheap collets, and for most uses, they'll be fine. You may want/need to run a stone along the slot, or touch up a spot or two.

WB metalworking projects

You probably don't own measuring equipment accurate enough to tell the difference in accuracy between inexpensive collets ant really expensive collets.

For the most part, the less expensive ones are softer. If you were to be handing them to the unwashed masses to use in say, a school shop, I would expect to have to replace a few of them, now and again, but you should get service out of them comensurate with the care with which they are used.

The other great thing about the no name collets is that there is a complete lack of guilt when you have to bore one out to make a "special"

Used with care, a dead soft collet will last a long time. And a whole set will cost about what a single Hardinge one does.

Cheers Trevor Jones

============ You may find that you will like using the "weldon" style set-screw holders even better. Certainly these are easier/quicker to change. and are almost a "quick change" system.

One "dodge" is to buy a 1 inch end mill holder and make up collets to fit all your tools.

Even better (but pricier) is the R8 adapter to ER collets.

There are many sources but I have delt with H & H and they have good products/services. If you decide to go the R8-ER collet route remember you won't need the full set of collets as hobby tooling typically has 3/8 and 1/2 shanks.

end mill adapters

Unk'a George (George McDuffee ===================================

A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money-maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example.

A manager may be tough and practical, squeezing out, while the going is good, the last ounce of profit and dividend, and may leave behind him an exhausted industry and a legacy of industrial hatred.

A tough manager may never look outside his own factory walls or be conscious of his partnership in a wider world.

I often wonder what strange cud such men sit chewing when their working days are over, and the accumulating riches of the mind have eluded them.

Robert Menzies (1894-1978), Australian Liberal politician, prime minister.

============ You may find that you will like using the "weldon" style set-screw holders even better. Certainly these are easier/quicker to change. and are almost a "quick change" system.

One "dodge" is to buy a 1 inch end mill holder and make up collets to fit all your tools.

Even better (but pricier) is the R8 adapter to ER collets.

There are many sources but I have delt with H & H and they have good products/services. If you decide to go the R8-ER collet route remember you won't need the full set of collets as hobby tooling typically has 3/8 and 1/2 shanks.

end mill adapters

Unk'a George (George McDuffee ===================================

A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money-maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example.

A manager may be tough and practical, squeezing out, while the going is good, the last ounce of profit and dividend, and may leave behind him an exhausted industry and a legacy of industrial hatred.

A tough manager may never look outside his own factory walls or be conscious of his partnership in a wider world.

I often wonder what strange cud such men sit chewing when their working days are over, and the accumulating riches of the mind have eluded them.

Robert Menzies (1894-1978), Australian Liberal politician, prime minister.

I'd had and used a set of cheap Enco R8 collets for a decade. I have no complaints, but I don't do any high-precision work either. .001" is precision in my shop most days, and most things don't need to be that close. I do sometimes use a file. Production is not an issue.

I have been surprised how well these collets grab. My drillchucks and flycutters have straight shanks that I grab with collets. I've never had a collet slip -- the drive belt in the B'Port J-head slips first.

It is sometimes a bit surprising how far off some of the cheapos can be. I did buy one good 1/2" collet because that's the size I use most of the time and that's the size of the shank on my edgefinder.

Well, generally, this should be true. I bought some import end mill holders a while ago from a reputable supplier like J&L, KBC or so. When they came in, they just looked funny, so I decided to check the runout. Good thing I did, as the TIR was .020"! Bad enough that I did actually SEE the error, but thought I was imagining it! The vendor replaced them immediately, and agreed there was something terribly wrong with them.

So, you might check them when they come in, just to be sure. There are some really crummy tools out there, as well as excellent stuff.

Jon

Now 5C on the other hand..there are some SERIOUS issues with some cheap ones.

Gunner

"Deep in her heart, every moslem woman yearns to show us her t*ts" John Griffin

There are indeed, but they're still useful for us HSM's who don't have to meet a spec, just make stuff that works. Cheap crummy 5C's, an inexpensive import spin index and a cheapo pair of collet blocks are handy as pockets on a shirt in this home machinist's shop. I seem to make a lot of odd nuts and bolts, metric and SAE, to fit this 'n that. They are sometimes blackened as for tools and guns, other times plated with zinc or nickel. Compensation is often in increments of 6 or 12, preferably Dixie Voodoo Black Lager.

One nice thing about cheap 5C collets: when you abuse them by reefing hard to grab a smaller diameter than they're intended for, ya don't hurt 'em any because they weren't that good to begin with -- and the job gets done.

Sad, too much time on hands thought...

Take the set of Chinese/Indian collets. get some shim or wire of the right size to hold the collets open. Use your favourite ceramic insert followed by the toolpost grinder and make all of the collets in the set one size larger, but exact (might have problems with the smaller ones). Buy one good collet to replace the smallest.

Shouldn't take more than a couple of months of evenings to get a good set that way :-(

Mark Rand RTFM

I have a Bridgeport mill with a power drawbar. The 'bar eats those cheap collets like they are candy. It chews the threads ou t of them quickly. The good (old) ones last and last.

I guess the cheap ones are the cost of doing business, so to speak.

JW