Gene; I have quite a few sets of ER collets. My original ER25 ones are from Regio Fix, and were expensive when I bought them. (Marcus is right...)
They are by far the best collets. I have some ER-40s from Maritool in the USA. They seem fine, too. I have some precision ones from CTC Tools, that are "ok" but my go-to collets are the Regio Fix ones in the ER-25 size. I have some cheapies from CTC Tools, like a 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2. (these are not their "precision" set) Fine for holding some of my inch shanked tooling like drill chucks in the mill, or material that will get turned down on the lathe. Marcus is also right about the smaller ends; my Regio-Fix ER-25 collets go smaller than the CTC tools ones, and some ER-11 collets from Arc Euro in the UK (they have parallel shank adapters) are, I believe, half mm increments, but sold in 1mm increments, so about 1/2 the small drills I can not hold.... (maybe it was my mistake on purchase, but I should fill in that set sometime) BTW - about 80% of the time my lathes have ER collet holders on, 100% of the time (and, I mean 100%) on the mills. On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 6:32 AM, Gene Heskett <ghesk...@wdtv.com> wrote: > On Friday 29 January 2016 04:12:24 Marcus Bowman wrote: > > > On 29 Jan 2016, at 06:32, Gene Heskett wrote: > > > On Thursday 28 January 2016 23:25:05 Ken Strauss wrote: > > >> Note that metric ER collet sets can grip any size in their range. > > >> However, there are gaps with most sets of Imperial sized collets. > > > > > > You are saying that a 3mm if comfortable with a 1/8" in it, and a > > > 6mm can handle the 1/4"? > > > > No; that won't work. An ER series collet can only hold up to the > > maximum stated size for that collet. After that, you must use the next > > largest collet. So for a 1/8inch drill bit you must use the 3-4mm > > collet. They are all marked with a range, and you must not go above or > > below the stated sizes for each collet. > > > > You also need to be careful of the range you are buying. Some > > suppliers sell sets which either (a) don't cover the range right down > > to the smallest size for that range (so some ER11 sets don't go below > > 1mm) and you would then need to buy additional collets to complete the > > set. Or (b) some suppliers sell sets which cover the full range but > > have too great a gripping range in the very small sizes. So they sell > > 0.5-1mm, 1-2mm and 2-3mm etc. The better approach is to use 0.5-1mm, > > 1-1.5mm, 1.5-2mm then rising in increments of 1mm 2-3, 3-4 etc for the > > rest of the range. Note you can't really go below 0.5mm (20 thou) > > because the collets are not designed to close down that far. The specs > > for the ER11 range, from the inventors of the concept are here: > > https://www.rego-fix.com/en/home-north-america/products/collets-reduct > >ion-sleeves/er-collets/paction/list/pcontroller/Article/anext/1/redirec > >ted/1/ptab/kind/size/er-11/kind/er-11-standard-mm.html > > > > If you go to: > > https://www.rego-fix.com/en/home-north-america/products/er-system/er-c > >ollets/paction/list/pcontroller/Article/anext/1/redirected/1/ptab/size/ > >size/er-11.html you will see there are different precision ranges. I > > have not been able to find any for sale in the UK, but I guess they > > would be, for me at least, largely unaffordable. Lots of collets are > > sold in what we might term "value" sets. Despite what the vendors are > > claiming, the runout is high, and, with sizes as small as ER11 that > > can be very noticeable especially on smaller sized tools. As someone > > else has noted (later post, I think), the cost of a good set is > > relatively high, and can be twice the cost of the cheap-as-chips sets > > commonly sold. There's a reason for that, and my experience has taught > > me to buy the branded sets (like Vertex, or the Swiss Rego_Fix > > originals) and just stump up the cash. It makes a significant > > difference. My last set of ER11 collets, delivered at the beginning of > > this week, and destined as collets for a grinder, were all marked with > > both the metric sizes and the imperial sizes gripped by each collet. > > Very handy. Cheap sets were available for £11 (roughly 20 USD) or £48 > > (roughly 90USD) and this set for £64 (roughly 110 USD). Ouch. Low > > runout is fine by me, especially given the cost of small diameter > > carbide cutters. > > > > Marcus > > Thanks for the tutorial, I appreciate it. Before all this discussion > I've bought a $23 set of 9, so I don't expect ultra low runout. But it > will take a while before I can exersize them. > > It looks like the only practical way to put it on the G0704 is to buy > another head casting & machine to fit this 80mm motor. So thats the > next step. Or sell this and buy the Sable, either the whole machine for > $720 & ship from Taiwan, or just their spindle assembly for $99 & ship. > But that only gives me 10k rpms, so the feed rates would still be under > 8 ipm. As that one is a belt drive, I'd imagine the motor pulley size > could be upped, but how long would the bearings last at 20k revs. > TANSTAAFL applies here too. First, find out what the bare head casting > for this one is worth. > > Thanks Marcus. > > Cheers, Gene Heskett > -- > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." > -Ed Howdershelt (Author) > Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Site24x7 APM Insight: Get Deep Visibility into Application Performance > APM + Mobile APM + RUM: Monitor 3 App instances at just $35/Month > Monitor end-to-end web transactions and take corrective actions now > Troubleshoot faster and improve end-user experience. Signup Now! > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=267308311&iu=/4140 > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Site24x7 APM Insight: Get Deep Visibility into Application Performance APM + Mobile APM + RUM: Monitor 3 App instances at just $35/Month Monitor end-to-end web transactions and take corrective actions now Troubleshoot faster and improve end-user experience. Signup Now! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=267308311&iu=/4140 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
