# Chinese ER20 Collet Chucks, Anyone have them?



## Jamespvill (Apr 28, 2014)

So I've been looking at ordering a batch of 10 ER20 Collet Chucks from Ebay, I've been looking at these ($160 for 10 including shipping) for a few months now and just haven't pulled the trigger because I'm not sure of the quality and/or tolerances on them and until recently I didn't have a mass of machinist folks to ask if they have any experience with them. Of course, I would always like to buy American, but at $16 a piece including shipping it's hard to resist the temptation....think of all the collet switching that will save me! 

Anybody play with chinese collet chucks and have some knowledge to pass along?


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## darkzero (Apr 28, 2014)

I don't even mess with China ER collets from the hit & miss stories I have heard from them being loose to unacceptable runout. I'm sure many out there have good experieneces but I'm not willing to find out as there are so many different unknown manufacturers.

I don't buy American, Polish, or Japanese either to save cost. I buy strictly Techniks brand, made in Taiwan. Their stuff is reputable for being pretty damn good for an asian import & they aren't expensive. That's what I'd recommend.

I buy Techniks for my ER & DA collets. FWIW my collet chucks are Bison & GMT. My R8 collets are China & I'm fine with them, got them free with my mill & there's only 3 sizes that I use occassionally anyways..


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## martik777 (Apr 28, 2014)

I have had no issues with my chinese ER25 chuck or collets (full set and chuck was <$60). CTCtools is reputable and with ebay buyer protection you should be ok.

His feedback reports on that chuck are all positive.


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## stevecmo (Apr 28, 2014)

James,

What's wrong with the ER-20 collet set you just got last month?

Steve


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## David S (Apr 28, 2014)

martik777 said:


> I have had no issues with my chinese ER25 chuck or collets (full set and chuck was <$60). CTCtools is reputable and with ebay buyer protection you should be ok.
> 
> His feedback reports on that chuck are all positive.



I agree with martik.  I have an ER11 and ER25 set from CTCtools and am very satisfied.  I haven't checked run out, but for what I do making clock parts it is just fine.

The collet holder has an MT2 taper to fit my lathe headstock.

David


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## Don B (Apr 28, 2014)

Jamespvill said:


> Anybody play with chinese collet chucks and have some knowledge to pass along?




I may have just gotten lucky but I purchased 2 set (20 total) from the same seller and have uses and checked 14 of them, all are within the quoted tolerance, I was skeptical about quality so I ordered one set of ten first and after checking them I placed the second order, I'm very happy with them.)


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## Jamespvill (Apr 28, 2014)

stevecmo said:


> James,
> 
> What's wrong with the ER-20 collet set you just got last month?
> 
> Steve



Hey Steve, Nothing wrong with the collets or the collet chuck. The collets were cheap as dirt chinese ones from ebay and the collet chucks were Darkòn brand from Canada. I'm just a stickler for making things easier and easier....thus getting lazier and lazier as time goes by! :thinking:

- - - Updated - - -



darkzero said:


> I don't even mess with China ER collets from the hit & miss stories I have heard from them being loose to unacceptable runout. I'm sure many out there have good experieneces but I'm not willing to find out as there are so many different unknown manufacturers.
> 
> I don't buy American, Polish, or Japanese either to save cost. I buy strictly Techniks brand, made in Taiwan. Their stuff is reputable for being pretty damn good for an asian import & they aren't expensive. That's what I'd recommend.
> 
> I buy Techniks for my ER & DA collets. FWIW my collet chucks are Bison & GMT. My R8 collets are China & I'm fine with them, got them free with my mill & there's only 3 sizes that I use occassionally anyways..



I didn't know that Techniks was made in Taiwan, Im curious now about collet quality...I think I might have to allocate some of my income to some collet comparisons...


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## Jamespvill (Apr 28, 2014)

Don B said:


> I may have just gotten lucky but I purchased 2 set (20 total) from the same seller and have uses and checked 14 of them, all are within the quoted tolerance, I was skeptical about quality so I ordered one set of ten first and after checking them I placed the second order, I'm very happy with them.)




Seeing as I just might have a few extra dollars floating around I think that I might jump for a set, if for no other reason than to warn others about them after I realize that I made a $160 mistake!

I think that I'm going to also snag up some Tecknicks stuff to do some comparison. 

You all tried to talk to me with reason and experience but the alluring savings provided by cheap chinese imports is too powerful for me to deny! :rofl:

Actually, I think I'll turn this into something educational more than anything. I'll post a write up when they arrive, and also try to include comparisons of some Darkòn, chinese imports, Taiwanese, and heck...might as well grab a Tormach one too since i'm throwing wads of money at my computer screen. I have no doubt that Darkòn and Tormach will be the utmost quality, but I am really curious to see how the other stand up to North American quality. 

Anywho, thanks for the advice everyone! Stand by for the comparison...not sure how long the collet chucks will take to hop over the big blue.


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## ronboult (May 2, 2014)

Hi James

I purchased the same set of 10x ER20 +2x ER25 Collet chucks ( BSello) and some ER20 & ER25 collets from CTC tools.

I am very pleased with the finish and accuracy of both the chucks and the collets. I can't tell any difference in runout between these and the R8 Collet that I use to hold them. I have dealt with CTC before and have found there products and service excellent. Their shipping is a little dear to Australia

I think you will like them.
Ron


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## jatt (May 4, 2014)

Yeah I have a set and a collet chuck from the same supplier.  
Would have to pull out the receipts, but I do remember tracking it from China, through a Hong Kong seller to me here in oz.

My experiences with them so far have been fine.  I will say though that I havent worked to tight tolerances on anything thus far.  

If I somehow stuff one, then its not such a big deal cost wise.


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## Don B (May 4, 2014)

Don B said:


> I may have just gotten lucky but I purchased 2 set (20 total) from the same seller and have uses and checked 14 of them, all are within the quoted tolerance, I was skeptical about quality so I ordered one set of ten first and after checking them I placed the second order, I'm very happy with them.)



I should have mentioned this in my original post, when I checked the runout on the ER20 holders I received I checked in 2 positions ( upper most extreme and lower ) on the internal taper where the collet sits, and any runout was parallel, one thing I did encounter was that the undercut that allows the holder to clear the R8 collet was not deep enough to allow the holders to seat properly against the spindle, I needed to grind approximately 1/16 off the face of the R8 collet, my starter set that the R8 collet came with was purchased from Novakon I'm not sure if people that have the R8 collet from the Tormach Tooling System have encountered this.)


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## ronboult (May 4, 2014)

As DonB has mentioned the Tormach 3/4" R8 collet is shortened on the front face to allow the collet chucks to locate against the face of the spindle. All this is explained on the Tormach website. I bought my 3/4" R8 collet from LMS at a reasonable price. 

I also bought some Tormach End Mill holders for End Mills with a weldon Shank. These I don't use much because they have more runout and many of my end mills don't have a Weldon Flat. More importantly they are not adjustable for height like the ER collet chucks which allows me to set most of my end mills at the same height ( very time consuming fiddly job) for easy rapid cutter changes during a machining job. My Mill is not CNC so  cutter length offset is not available.

Ron


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