Advantages of collet chucks over regular chucks?

[Starlight Tools]

One other advantage I like on the collets, particularly the 5C set up that I use, is that you can hold square or hex stock in them.

Another is that I can take a project from the lathe to the mill, and using the square or hex collet blocks quickly index a part to mill flats on the part in 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 divisions.

Downside to them is the time taken to change from one collet to another. Lots of spinning on the chuck key on my bison collet chuck to remove or insert new callets, and as others have pointed out, you need a lot of collets to cover the full range of 1/64" to 1-1/8"

I got a 5C collet stand 72 holes that was double plate construction and used each plate in a drawer of a roll cab so that I can store up to 144 collets.

First drawer is for imperial rounds by 1/64th increments, second drawer is for metric rounds by 1 mm increments, hex and square by 1/16th increments.

Walter

 

[Tony Wells]

Tony,

Well heck then, just get one of these...4000 R's fast enough for you? I can send you the price quote if you want. You'll want to be sitting down before you read it...


Ray

No, actually I would want up to probably 8-10k if I go to a smaller machine. And I know what those things cost. I don't need one that bad. In general, when I need close runout, I figure way to do it all in one chucking, or make some soft jaws. If the work is really that small, I've been known to use the mill to do some small turning. Of course, no single point threading, but can turn pretty accurately.

Walter, good points about the hex and square. And the job transfer. It does take a lot of collets to have complete coverage, especially if you include Metric.

 

[Jimsehr]

I use collets most of the time. One thing is speed you can open and close a 5c collet in seconds without stopping machine. I have a Jacobs rubberflex setup that takes up to
1.375 stock. And I use 5c step collets to hold short parts up to 6 inch dia and I use 5c id collets to hold on inside of parts up to 6 inch dia often. And bore soft 5c collets to special sizes like washers where I only bore them to a short depth like 1/16 inch or I can bore them to a depth like 1/2 inch and have a built in stop. I have 2 jaw ,3jaw , and 4 jaw chucks and use all of them. Also have bored soft 5c collets on mill to make parts excentric for cams. Another thing you can do with collets is put a spring loaded stop in
and when you open collet parts will jump out .
jimsehr

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I use collets most of the time. One thing is speed you can open and close a 5c collet in seconds without stopping machine. I have a Jacobs rubberflex setup that takes up to<br>1.375 stock. And I use 5c step collets to hold short parts up to 6 inch dia and I use 5c id collets to hold on inside of parts up to 6 inch dia often. And bore soft 5c collets to special sizes like washers where I only bore them to a short depth like 1/16 inch or I can bore them to a depth like 1/2 inch and have &nbsp;a built in stop. I have 2 jaw ,3jaw , and 4 jaw chucks and use all of them. Also have bored soft 5c collets on mill to make parts excentric for cams. Another thing you can do with collets is put a spring&nbsp;loaded stop in<br>and when you open collet parts will jump out .
jimsehr