I need to buy some 8R collets, to use with my home-made lathe-mill. In various catalogs, I see R8 collets for many different prices with no specs. given. I am sure there are differences in quality and tolerances. I don't want to foolishly pay to much or buy ones that are unsatisfactory. Please share your experiences on which brands would be worth buying. Pete
Buying unbranded or cheap imports may leave you with a poor qulity collet. Ibought some cheap ones from Enco, and half of them would not even thread up on the draw bar , and two of them the insert thread came out. Good name brand collets can be had if you shop on ebay, sometimes for less than what a import collet sells for. Niel Skokie, Lyndex, Hardinge are a few of the better ones. I do have some imports that are just as good as the higher dollar collets as well. Its just a mixed bag with the huge amount of import items offered today so your really just taking a chance. Some imports may not be as true as a quality collet, as far a T.I.R is concerned. Normally you get what you pay for, but one never knows for sure.
Personally I would not be afraid to buy them if need be.
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I bought an Enco Mill/|Drill about 7 years ago and purchased a set of import R8 colllets for it. I have been pretty happy, but I did have to run a tap into each collet to clean up the draw bar threads, and had to file slightly on the keyway slot on several of the collets to get them to insert and release easier.
You get what you pay for, I guess. The R8 set I purchased has almost no measurable TIR to speak of. That said, I have no clue who made the collets in the first place, and the term "import" covers a lot of territory and makers.
Mike Eberle> Buying unbranded or cheap imports may leave you with a poor qulity
I bought a 12-pc set of import R8 collets from Travers (1/8" to 3/4" by
1/16", plus 7/8"). Travers listed them as "TTC" brand (which is Traver's internal brand for import tooling), however the collets I received were actually "MHC" brand. MHC is a fairly common brand of Chinese tooling; I don't know if MHC is a manufacturer or a distributor. In any case, I am quite pleased with the quality of these collets: they are well made. They are precise, the threads are smooth, the keyway groove is the right size, and the fit is correct.But I was surprised to discover that the collets are made in two pieces: the spring collet body, and a threaded insert (for the drawbar) which is staked into the collet body. Are all R8 collets made this way, or just the cheap ones?
Regards, Michael
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