Collis Or Knock Offs, Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

Bought a 11-piece Vertex (Taiwan) R8 collet set for $114 from Eisen Machinery and am very happy with them. Compared runout of the 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" sizes to the Shars I bought for the PM25. Difference wasn't even worth remembering. I've had a total of four collet sets since 2000 and have not had any of the quality or fitment issues many here describe. Guess I'm just lucky.

No way I'm going to spend $100 per collet, I don't care where they come from.
 
mksj said:
Totally bogus knock offs. I would be curious to know where you purchased them from, probably avoid buying from them again. Collets can vary quite a bit, but if you look at the build quality and consistency, the generic knock-offs are often poorer. That being said, I bought some Shars 5C collets to fill the gaps in my 5C sets, decent, but not as good as the Lyndex and Royal in the rest of the set. I also returned two sets of Chinese R-8 collets because they did not fit, ended up finally springing for a Lyndex set and had no problems.
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MSC
 
I'd recommend you send them all back and just buy a good set of R8 collets, or a quality ER collect chuck. Unless you are running shrink fit holders, end mill holder will always be less accurate than a collet, it's simply the nature of the beast, and the tolerances involved.
 
Dan I already have a 25 piece set of Lyndex collets and a ETM ER32 collet set. These two end mill holders are for roughing duty and for getting down into stuff where the mill quill is too large.

Guys also remember I bought the Maxi Torque-Rite power draw bar and I want to take advantage of the quick tool changes. The ER32 collet chuck is annoying and slow in this regard.

I'm just adding some additional tooling here not standardizing on end mill holders. ;)
 
Myself I would spend the money on some nice semi finishing roughers and stick em in a collet and be happy. Endmill holders, take up space, add to runout and on a Bridgeport style machine gain you next to nothing. Nodding head, lightweight Bridgeport type machines are not designed to be hogging machines, I believe the original BP manual title was Toolmakers Turret mill. They will do a little of everything, somethings very well, hogging is not one of them. I sold my endmill holders, they gained me next to nothing. I hope they work out for you, but I doubt it.

michael
 
I just received the replacements...they shipped me the same damn thing as before lol they are going back I'm done. I'm guessing they moved manufacturing of these to Asia but never lowered the price, shocker. I'm going to call Collis tomorrow to confirm/complain.
 
I have watched MSC for many years. Their prices are high, their specials are not nearly as good as the competition, and their documentation is often poor. Recently I bought two vise handles, Gibraltar, from MSC, my first purchase ever from them. I could not find a Gibraltar catalog online to confirm the sizing listed in the MSC catalog. When the handles came, they were not even close to the sizes quoted in the MSC catalog. I was too ****** to even call them and send them back. I am done with MSC after one purchase. Why do people think they are so great? I get much better customer service, prices, sales, and delivery from their sister company, Enco.
 
Bob Korves said:
I have watched MSC for many years. Their prices are high, their specials are not nearly as good as the competition, and their documentation is often poor. Recently I bought two vise handles, Gibraltar, from MSC, my first purchase ever from them. I could not find a Gibraltar catalog online to confirm the sizing listed in the MSC catalog. When the handles came, they were not even close to the sizes quoted in the MSC catalog. I was too ****** to even call them and send them back. I am done with MSC after one purchase. Why do people think they are so great? I get much better customer service, prices, sales, and delivery from their sister company, Enco.
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Not to steal Cool's thread to rag on MSC, but they have gone down hill and drug Enco with them. They both use to be better companies, Enco actually manufactured some pretty high quality tooling in the 1970s and 80s. Their boring heads and tool posts were finely made items. About the time that MSC bought J&L it all went south. Enco sale catalog got more homogeneous in its offerings, MSC started raising prices dramatically and poor J&L disappeared all together. You used to be able to buy Circle solid carbide boring bar kits for next to nothing in the sale flyer, likewise generic Chinese carbide inserts. No more,and it has filtered down to Enco which still has some fair deals but nothing like a decade or 3 ago.

In my opinion MSC is riding on their rep from along time ago, its bean counters running the show near as I can tell.

michael
 
Michael my brother was just complaining about the price of Circle carbide boring bars a few minutes ago when we were speaking on the phone. The problem with Enco is when you try to go up in quality sometimes they don't offer that brand from Enco, only from MSC. I had to get the Guhring taps recently from MSC, Enco doesn't sell that brand.

I wonder if part of the problem is that so much manufacturing has left the country.
 
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