Brought home a used G0704 to get my feet wet...

[Mr Mike]

For milling, 1/8" R8 collet sizes are really all you need. The 1" size is VERY weak, BTW.

BUT, I now ALSO own a 1/64" set so I can avoid a drill Chuck in special situations My Rockwell has kinda limited daylight, and no way to add a Z spacer...

Hi.. as I've been shopping, what I'm finding is exactly what your saying.. Most all end mill tooling I see is falling in the 8ths realm. I currently don't want to buy a 32nds set but I do see the the need for them due to the stricter size use requirements compared to ER collects... Thanks for the heads up, Mike.

I'd spring for a quality set of collets. Excessive run out not only reduces accuracy, it also kills endmills so money saved on cheap collets will eventually be paid for in end mills.

Hello Sir.. Can we talk about this quality requirement for a sec..?

I noticed shopping around this morning that most brands I've looked at have a two selections of collets, including PM, Shars, Colton and others. They all seem to have " I'm being nice here " a Good set and an even Gooder set..!

Its important to note that this will Not be my forever mill, that being said any tooling I buy now will be kept and not sold with the G0704. My big question is do I need to buy the really high end expensive brand name Collets - If so then I will buy a 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 & 1/2 for now and fill in the rest as needed, Or will a " Gooder " PM Ultra Precision set be sufficient - If so then I will definitely buy an 11pc style PM set in 16ths...?

Thanks , Mike..

Edit: just ordered the PM Ultra Precision 11pc set, I'm guessing its a middle of the road set that'll get me going...

 

[Aaron_W]

Looking around a bit it seems like most of the reputable sellers offer 0.0005" max runout as their "good" set, PM does offer a set with max 0.0002". The cheapest sets I found claim 0.007" or do not specify.

Other than not getting the cheapest Ebay / Amazon set you can find, maybe not so critical with R-8 collets since they are by default milling collets, unlike MT2 or ER which can be used for both tool holding and work holding.
With ER in particular quality and cost varies greatly. The Techniks ER32 collets I bought ran around $15 / ea, there are sets available for the same amount. The Techniks have a claimed TIR of 0.0002". If that is needed vs 0.0005" I don't have the experience to say, but certainly doesn't hurt.