Collet holders?

When doing a short run of small parts I use a Kalamazoo 5C collet chuck held in a 3 jaw, works a charm for small parts in a large lathe.
If you do not have an adjustable 3 jaw just hold it in a 4 jaw, either way the collet run out can be held to near 0.
These cost less then $400.00.
If making thousands of the same part then a collet chuck with a closer is faster.
You may also use machinable collets and turn them in place to make pocketed work holding in any shape required, you can also mill the collet in a holder to hold rectangular, square, offset, polygonal and threaded parts, the possibilites are endless and 5C collets are cheap.
 
If you have a set of telescoping gauges, you can measure the internal diameter of your spindle at specific distances and determine which taper you've got. It seems most tapers of this type these days are Morse Taper (MT), but on older equipment the variety increaes, for example my lathe has a Jarno taper.

Edit: I found this helpful when I was figuring out my taper: https://littlemachineshop.com/reference/tapers.php
 
MT tapers can be tough to identify just by looking, but I'll bet your lathe has one. The trick is to know what one. My 1127 uses MT5 in the spindle, MT3 in the tailstock. The documentation for the lathe likely specifies it, and it may have come with an adapter for it. For example, PM included a MT5-MT3 adapter for the included dead center. If you have tooling with MT tapers, you can test fit them to check.

If you don't need the spindle through hole, an MT collet chuck is probably the cheapest way to start. I like the adjustable units like the Shars unit I posted above. You dial it in like a 4-jaw, so it's as accurate as you want it to be. Mine is under 5 tenths right now, as that was the limit of the indicator I used. I have a 1 tenth indicator now and I'll probably get around to dialing it in more soon.
 
My ER32 collet holder on a MT3 taper with a diy draw bar. Very handy tool!
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(from mobile)
 
Looking to make some pens and pocket sized flashlights next.
Looks like some collets with a through hole would be best.

I think something in the size range of 1/4" to 1" would cover the sizes I wish to turn.

I have been away from the lathe a bit but it is all coming back, I realize the draw bar is what holds the collet holder in place on the lathe unless the collet holder can screw on.
 
What lathe do you have? I mean, which specific make and model. If we can determine which spindle is on the lathe then we can give you more useful information.

It makes no sense to use a collet chuck on the lathe that will not allow you to pass material through the chuck and spindle bore. That leaves MT-mounted collet chucks out as far as I'm concerned.

If you plan to use this collet chuck to hold end mills on the lathe then 5C is not a good option for this. It is intended to hold stock in the lathe, not tooling. Add in the limited range they can grip and thus the need for many collets to cover the full range of stock, that makes a 5C system a less than optimal choice for your needs.

That leaves an ER chuck as the most obvious choice. Which one to get depends on the spindle bore you have and how a chuck is mounted on that spindle, which brings us back to which lathe do you have? Then we can tell you how it mounts and perhaps point you to a source where you can obtain them.
 
You have given your lathe size, but not the method of attaching your chuck or what size spindle bore.


The most common collets seem to be the 5C and ER type. I have a similar sized lathe and what I have figured out is 5C are really intended for a bigger lathe.
There are chucks that will allow you to use them on a smaller lathe, but they need a larger than 1" spindle bore to use a draw bar so you are losing some of their effectiveness on a smaller lathe. Often the chucks used for a smaller lathe mount in the spindle bore greatly limiting your ability to run material into the head.

There are 3C collets which use the same design as 5C but are designed for smaller lathes with a 1" spindle bore. They are less common so more expensive (also smaller capacity than the 5C).

The major downside to the 5C and 3C type collets are their very small range, so you need to have a lot of them. A comprehensive set will have 1/64" steps so around 70 collets (for 5C, 3C being smaller would have less).


ER collets seem to me to be superior for small lathes since they are designed to work off the front of the chuck so they are not limited by the spindle bore regardless of size. I have an ER32 chuck on my Sherline which has spindle bore a hair larger than 3/8".

ER sizing is based on the nominal size of the outside diameter of the collet in mm (an ER32 collet is 32mm or 1-9/32" in diameter). They can hold work to about 70% of their stated diameter (ER32 1 9/32" outside diameter, and 7/8" is the largest size work holding available for the size).
The other advantage is they have a much larger range of work holding, it varies by size with larger collets having a larger range, but sets are generally stepped with 1/32" at the smaller end to 1/16" increments on the larger sizes. So a comprehensive ER set only needs 1/3 to 1/2 as many collets as a 5C set. This range also means you really don't need to have both metric and SAE sizes.

Since ER collets come in a wide variety of sizes (ER11 to ER50) you have the option of buying multiple chucks sized to your work (small chuck and collets for small work, larger chuck and collets for larger work) or just buying one chuck sized to your largest work and getting wide range of collets for it based on what works best for you.

There are many other collet types but these two seem to be the most popular for hobby users.


3C/5C used to have an advantage of offering other shapes than round, having square, and hex shapes available, but you are starting to see these offered for ER collets as well.
 
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Weiss WBL250F from DR Pros

I am confused by so many options, having never touched a collet or collet holder its very tough to be sure I am getting something useful and that will fit.

Not trying to be difficult just trying to grasp new things.

I like the idea of having a through shaft so longer items can go through the spindle, size 1/4" to 1", so far looking to try some pen and flashlight making.

Thanks!!
 
The instructions for your lathe say the chuck has threaded studs that go through a flange on the headstock and there are nuts on the back of the flange holding it on. Does that look like the setup you have? You will probably need to adapt a mounting plate to fit your lathe to use a purchased chuck like the one I posted from Shars.

Another option is to completely build your own. You would need to be able to cut a very accurate taper and thread for the nut (assuming ER style collets). There are a few threads on the forum discussing it.

For the size range you asked for, ER40 is a good choice. And a chuck like the one I mentioned is open on the back so you can have any stock that will fit in the headstock bore.
 
I want to say I recall D1-4 size

So I was looking at this option for er40

.....https://www.ebay.com/itm/352560657304?ul_noapp=true
 
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