Opinions on Shars Tool Company? (metric 5C collet source)

I've never bought directly from Shars via their catalog, but I did purchase a fairly expensive item from them via one of their Ebay auctions (they go by the Ebay ID: discount_machine). Their communication, service, delivery speed, and product were all excellent, so I *would* recommend them.

As for their "branded" economy 5C collets, they are most likely of Chinese origin and similar in quality to other Chinese-made "import" collets. That means they're probably fine for most hobby applications, and perhaps even a fair number of commercial/professional applications. According to a Shars

2005/2006 catalog I have, their 5C collets are stated to be accurate to 0.0006" TIR.

If you need assurances of higher precision than that, yet can't afford Lyndex or Royal, then you might want to consider Bison 5C collets which are guaranteed to 0.0004" TIR. Bison tools are manufactured in Poland and I find them to be of very high quality. Perhaps not at the level of some premium American brands, but certainly much higher than most Chinese, or even Taiwanese, tooling. KBC Tools sells Bison 5C collets in inch and metric sizes. Unfortunately, the prices have recently increased on these to $11.13 each (versus $17.55 each for Lyndex metric 5C collets).

- Michael

I've ordered tooling several times from Shars and the only problem I had was due to a misprint in their catalog about the part # of some carbide inserts. I put their 100 series QC toolpost on my Atlas 12x36 lathe and it's about typical for Chinese gear. I haven't seen anything bad from them and intend to order more.

David

I've ordered from them a couple of times. Once (maybe twice) was through an ebay auction and the other time was direct. Both transactions were good and I would do business with them again. Mike