Collet confusion.

With interest, but I got that wrong didn't I? It was Charles who got the CVA

Peter

Yup. I thought about a Hardinge but went for a CVA.

Charles

My Hardinge collets are imperial by 1/64ths, the full set has never left me short of a collet of the right size. Though an exact fit will always give you the very best grip of course.

I hate to think about how many years it took me to afford the full set for the lever operated collet, but have never regretted it.

Be careful of these direct from Hong Kong sales. Read the current feedback, some is in other languages but the trend is for customs to start checking these parcels.

When you get hit with a VAT and duty bill plus no redress on faulty goods it's a risk you have to take. Fine on a £2 laser pointer but on precision gear I'd like to see what I'm buying.

There is still some rubbish out there and it's bound to filter down to the lowest priced goods. At least with Warco, Chronos and Arc you do have some redress.

P Riedie.

I was about to put some imperial F type collets on eBay, but (not knowing anything about this type of collet) I assume that I need to do more than just say "F type". Can anyone enlighten me about the critical dimensions for sub-types?

If anyone's interested in them they were made by Perfos.

Dave

Thanks for the pointer though I was not about to purchase and used the link to demonstrate the full range.

I used the EBay negative feedback site to check the supplier I quoted. It seems folks are content with the collets but got caught by 'officialdom' which pushed up the cost. Also seems the supplier is not communicative.

Henry

Keep the price below £18 and there is no VAT - actually it's the £8 (PO) or £10 (DHL) charge for collecting the VAT which gets you, not the VAT itself.

There are two or three HK sellers, they seem communicative enough though they don't reply to "it isn't here yet" comments until several weeks have passed. You have to be patient.

Not the world's best quality, but everything I have bought has been perfectly adequate - and the price is right.

-- Peter Fairbrother

Yes Peter that's true about the VAT and the £18 limit and this will cover some of the cheaper articles but when you get into the realms of collet chucks and sets of collets the £18 limit doesn't apply.

I bought two pipe centres, even though the seller agreed to combine postage he didn't as that is where they make up some profit. Both centres were absolute junk you could see the wobble spinning them by hand. No contact afterwards other than a cryptic remark "Why you not tell us ?"

I left negative feed back and at this time the seller was also able to, they gave me negative feedback saying I hadn't contacted them.

So by the time I had paid two lots of shipping, two lots of VAT, two lots of handling just to throw these in the bin proved a costly experience that I'm not prepared to undertake again.

I replaced one from Chester and one from Chronos at Warwick last year and finished up paying less than Mr Hong Kong Wong charged and got better value to boot.

PR.

FULL ER25 COLLET SET

There's usually a better and slightly cheaper 13-piece set too.

ER32 COLLET SET (10 PCS)

ER25 and ER32 collets chucks, in straight shank, MT2, MT3, R8, are widely available for less than a tenner.

You have to add postage, but for light things, especially ER25 collet sets, the price is still remarkably low. Don't combine postage where it takes the total price over £18 though!

I have bought half a dozen ER chucks and sets, from 3 different HK sellers - they are all of acceptable quality. And cheap as ninepence.

No guarantees, YMMV

-- Peter Fairbrother