# Will er16 collets work in the Emco unimat 3?



## dzarren (Feb 16, 2021)

I recently got a unimat 3 lathe. I also have a tiny toyo ml 210 in absolutely mint condition, but I have a couple questions about the unimat.

It came with tons of tooling, two 3 jaws, a 4 jaw, steady rest, feed attachment and so on.
It also has a collet chuck and a single collet, unfortunately does not have the rest of the collets just the one 3/16 collet.

At first I thought it was an er16 collet because the diameter and length were the same as the er 16, but after some digging, I have found it is the e16 series not made since the 60s, and they sell for about 50USD for a single NOS collet on ebay. Someone's got a whole set but they want over a grand?!?!?! for the set. 

Ill include a picture of my collet, it is the e16 type for sure.

In the following video, it is claimed that er16 collets will fit in the original e16 unimat collet chuck. Is this true? He says that he found this i formation online, and demonstrates an er16 collet going into the collet chuck, but I have not found any information online saying the er16s are compatible with the e16 chucks.

The taper looks different for sure, is this a problem? I wont be doing any super precision work, within several thou is good enough for me for sure, and if I can get away with buying a set of er16 collets to use, that would be so so so awesome.

Anyone know if the er16 collets can be used in the e16 unimat chuck?

Here is the video, at 2:00  he claims er16 fits the unimat chuck. And he shows putting an er 16 into the chuck, seems to be okay?







Thank you for any information greatly appreciated .


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## mickri (Feb 17, 2021)

I can't help with the e16 verses ER16 issue.

But it is not hard to make an ER collet chuck.  You do need to be able to cut a metric thread.  I made an ER32 collet chuck for my craftsman 12x36.  And you buy the nuts.  They are not expensive and it is very handy to have 3 or 4 collet nuts.  I have 4 and am thinking about buying two or three more.  One nice thing about making a collet chuck is that it will be precise to your lathe.


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## markba633csi (Feb 17, 2021)

Yes you can put a er16 into a e16 chuck however (there's always a however) you won't be able to pull the nut down very far. It will only go on a couple threads.  So it's doable but not ideal.  My advice is to make one or adapt a commercially available one to fit your spindle which i believe is M14 thread
(the early Unimats used M12)
-Mark
ps ironically one of the ones that was missing from my set was a 3/16"; for the one collet I paid 25 $ a couple years ago. They do hold their value.
pss you may be able to make just a new nut for your existing chuck- then with an inexpensive set of er16s you'd be off to the races


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## tghsmith (Feb 17, 2021)

I'm looking at these folks for a small milling machine using some very modded SL1000 parts.. 








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## Illinoyance (Feb 17, 2021)

There is a thread on Practical Machinist that addresses The E16 vs ER16 compatibility.  Look at the new threads for Volstro.


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