Confused on collets

C

Creativechipper

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With a new lathe and new to all of this, I find myself confused on collets.

I think I get the ER20,32,40 is just a size range.

I see some say something about hole through the gearbox?

I see some expensive adapter plates, chucks, nuts.etc.

Whats needed to run a collet on a mt4 spindle on a 10x30 lathe?

I am looking at a 1/2" round barstock of aluminum that is 12" long. Also considering turning some stainless steel 8mm tube, any advice?

Thanks, Jay
 
Well, you could buy MT4 collets and a drawbar, or perhaps buy a reducing sleeve and use a smaller MT collet size (such as MT3 or 2) Or you could buy a MT4 to ER adapter chuck (also with drawbar). There are also collet chucks which attach to the spindle threads or use the camlock or taper systems, if your machine is so equipped. Quite a choice eh?
mark
 
Very much so, when you have never even seen a metal lathe run in person.

Busy reading all the threads I can digest for now.

I have a feeling I will be turning some small diameter stuff and using gravers. I hear a bulky material holder is bad for that.

I also like the idea of the through hole but have no idea if my lathe is capable or what pcs will make it work.

Just trying to understand the basics, Thanks
 
What lathe do you have? Do you want to pass stock through the spindle? For example, I have a PM1127. It has a 1.5" hole you can pass stock through. If I used an MT5 adapter I wouldn't be able to do that. The drawbar would prevent it. Instead I used a chuck that mounts to the D1-4 mount and has a pass through hole so I can do that. The collets are ER40 which are smaller than the spindle, so anything that fits the collet will fit the spindle.

If you are new, you might start with the 3 and 4 jaw chucks and get familiar with the lathe before spending money on collets. You might decide to go bigger, different lathe, etc.. Might as well spend the money once.
 
Keep in mind that a spindle-mounted collet chuck will let you pass long work through the hole, as opposed to a taper-mounded chuck, which generally uses a solid drawbar and will have very limited depth. I bought the latter for use on the mill of my 3-in-1 (MT3) -great for holding end mills when I don't have the right sized holder. But, with a MT4 to MT3 adapter sleeve I use it on the lathe for holding small parts. If I ever get around to getting an ER32 chuck, I'll be able to use the same collets for long stock.
 
I picked up the Weiss WBL250F 10x30 lathe with QCTP and a set of 1/4" indexable carbide cutters plus a boring bar.

I am really enjoying learning so much and seeing all the great stuff you all do with your equipment.

Thanks again for all the input, I am slow but I will figure this out.

It's like reading a description vs seeing some action, so many words yet so simple..lol
 
Good info, I see the shars.com link to a collet holder. So it holds the collet, no back plates, adapters or bars,tapers or moors to add to get the ability to hold with a collet?

I see a lot of mention of all kinds of differing pcs and ways to hold the collets, I just dont know what the requirements are. So that makes it hard to try something, not knowing compatibility to collets and my lathe.
 
The diameter of the spindle bore limits the size of the stock that may be passed through it from the back end.
If you have a 2" spindle bore machine and want to turn a 2 1/6" bar you will be forced to do all of the work on the chuck side.

I drilled 2 11/16" holes through 6" diameter steel saw cut blanks this afternoon. They are saw cut because this machine will only pass 5 1/2" through the spindle otherwise I could have used a 20 FT length, drilled and parted to length saving a saw cutting operation and facing operation.
It made excellent chips, took about 15 minutes per part, 18 parts. Drilled straight through, no pilot hole or spot drill as the bore finishes at 2.937" +0 -.002. Used a carbide insert spade drill at 90 Rpms and .007 IPM feed rate, could have gone much faster but was letting it run unattended while running another machine. You will hear it when a spade drill begins to pass through the far side of the part.


This is a fairly large turret lathe that I used

The spindle bore is a very important consideration when purchasing a lathe, if you desire to make parts from bar lengths make sure that the machine will pass the diameters required
 
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