ER32/ER40 or 5C? Whats your choice and why?

GrifterGuru

GrifterGuru

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Ok, so another possibly contentious subject, however....

Between ER32/ER40 or 5C Which did you choose and why?

Looking purely at the options of 5C there are round, square, hex, emergency and expanding mandrel collets, not to mention depth stop options.

ER32/40 has no options for square, hex, emergency or expanding mandrel collets, though they do have, what appears to be, a better grip over what they hold and options for tap holding collets.

So, which system have you chosen and why?

**** EDIT ****

Maybe I should make this a little clearer...

I am looking for the reason you have chosen the system you have and the decision process behind it.

I have already settled on a choice, however, being ever curious about why choices are made, I wanted to explore the larger picture of the decision process between either system

**** EDIT ****
 
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I run a 3J, 4J and a ER32 chuck. I happen to have 5C capability but never use it as don't want to invest in the much more expensive and larger (storage) 5C collets.
You can run the hex in a 3J chuck if needed.
Most "emergency" holding work I do is one-off custom held in the 3J or 4J.
I also have a face plate but have yet to use it.

On the ER32 collets, if you get the 1/32" set you have slightly finer granularity than the 1mm sets.
I have the Techniks ER32 collets, they are pretty nice for the money.
 
You might have a look at this article I published a while back that goes into the trade-offs between the alternatives. I settled on ER-40 for the simple reasons that for material holding, I am rarely working with stock that is a nominal dimension of a 5C, and I’m not doing repetitive identical part production on the lathe so I have no need for a quick-release collet chuck. Read the article and see how your needs best match with the pros and cons of each system.
 
Er40 here. I did a forum trade for 3c collets, but haven’t used them.

Reasons: I am a very particular sort of hobby machinist that spends a lot of my effort avoiding the trap of “having it just in case”. I don’t need the perfect setup for every job.

When I do work for others, it’s free to them, and at my leisure. The idea of needing to do any of this on a timeline is abhorrent to me. And if NOT on a timeline, there’s no worry about the best way to do it.

The er40s are cheap. Collet blocks are cheap. There’s even a super cheap collet chuck for ER40. For every perfect system, there is a perfectly useful work around that keeps my dollars in my pocket.

TLDR; I’m cheap, and so are ER40 accessories.

Also, I apologize because I know that reply is exactly as useful as a dried up paint can.
 
I have a 5C collet chuck. The reason for the 5C chuck is that I already had a set of 5C collets for my spin indexer. The decision was driven by the need to able to work the left side of a part where my 3 jaw or 4 jaw wouldn't permit it. I already had a full compliment of ER20 TTS tooling and if I want/need to use it, I can mount the TTS chuck in the 4 jaw and indicate it in for zero runout.

I currently have the 5C chuck mounted on the lathe as I have to turn round tenons on eighty 1/2" HR bars and it would be a royal PITA to do this with my f4 jaw chuck. I couldn't do this with an ER chuck. (I suppose that I could have made or bought a split sleeve with a 1/2" square hole.)
 
GrifterGuru said:
Oh dear... I can see me spending some outrageous sums of money ton that website... Hope they ship to the UK....
Click to expand...
They have a few nice things. But I attempt to control myself. It's too easy to buy stuff which you don't need, and may never use. At the time, I needed that hex collet. But it's the only hex collet I have, since I bought it to accomplish a task.
 
I have ER40 and 5c and use them both. ER is more flexible with the size of the stock, so I use that mostly, but 5c makes setting up a depth stop easy for turning multiple parts. I also have a horizontal/vertical indexer for the mill that takes 5c. The disadvantage of 5c is the size of the stock needs to have a tight tolerance so it grips properly. If I have parts that need a depth stop for the second operation, I need to remember to keep the size right, or it won’t fit into the collet.

Something else to consider, if your parts are short, 5c works better, ER needs your stock/part to be at least about 2/3 the length of the collet to grip properly. I have used a piece at the back of the collet to keep the grip on the front of short pieces, similar to what you would do in a mill vise to keep the jaw from racking. That worked, but not ideal. You could probably make a screwed in depth stop for an ER chuck similar to what you do with 5c collets. I don’t know how repeatable that would be, but might work.

Being in Europe, you might want to look into Rubber Flex type collet chucks, they can use a collet with similar features as ER, but also can use a spring collet like 5c. They are quite expensive here, don’t know if they are much cheaper in Europe. Ortlieb would be expensive for a hobby shop, but this page shows you what I am talking about. You may be able to find a knock off brand out of China that is more economical. https://www.ortlieb.net/en/products/workpiece-clamping/quadro-collet-chuck-ssf
 
I bought an adjustable 5C chuck when I bought the lathe. I really like how I can get my hands right up against it for polishing small parts. The internal stop is nice but I've probably only used it once or twice a year. I also have 5C collet a Tool & Cutter grinder, blocks and a spin Indexer. My 5C collet set is by 32s with a few 64s, 2 square and two hex. Sometimes I don't have a good fit and will resort to using my ER40 stuff. The 5C collets will hold with very little of the work into them, (with in reason.) It is very quick to change out parts.
I have an ER40 adjustable chuck. The first set of collets I got were by 16ths. Too big of jumps between sizes & this set was very difficult to get the collets in & out of the nut. I bought another set by 32nds and they work much easier and cover most metric parts. I also have an R8 to ER40 for the mill. Mostly used for the odd assortment of metric tooling I've come by on the cheap. I don't have a set of R8 metric collets. Deep enough into the rabbit hole.
I will change to the 5C chuck any time I can because it is so nice to use.
 
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