Need Advice About Lathe Collets

[brino]

A basic explination of how Swiss lathes differ from conventional machines may be found here.

Okay, for the hobby machinists with Swiss lathes, please ignore my comments.

From the link provided by @Wreck™Wreck:

Expect to pay around $170,000 for a mid-range 20 mm (about 3/4″) unit.​

<whistle> I'm out!

But that was a great link Wreck, I never had the difference explained before.
Thanks!

-brino

 

[benmychree]

Have you seen a Jacobs Rubberflex Collet Chuck system? When I need to use a collet on my lathe this is my go to tooling. They were made with various back-plates to mount to your lathe, but I don't know if they have a size to fit your 8-1/2" machine

There is a Jacobs collet chuck that is smaller than the one pictured, it is the Model 50, and uses series 500 collets with a max capacity of 1" and an O.D. of about 6" on the handwheel

 

[Tozguy]

Ah geez, now I want a Swiss lathe.

 

[brino]

Ah geez, now I want a Swiss lathe.

Maybe if you just drilled a bunch of random holes thru the lathe you have you could convince yourself that you already have one.

-brino

 

[Zathros]

Thanks very much for the information. The LMS ER-40 4 inch diameter chuck will fit my lathe and is exactly what I was looking for. As Tom mentioned I would not be able to use the largest size collets as through hole but could hold shorter pieces of stock with them.
Thanks Brino for the welcome to Hobby-Machinist. The help and information has been exactly what I was looking for.
With my admittedly limited knowledge collets seem like a much more accurate way to hold round bar stock than a 3 jaw chuck and almost as easy to use (requiring at most a quick collet change). However on almost all of the youtube videos and blogs that I have seen 3 jaw chucks are used all the time and collets are very rarely if ever used. Am I missing something obvious?

You're welcome, I rather use à collet because it is better centered. Any workpiece round and max size of my lathe collet holder I prefer to use collets instead of the 3 or 4 jaw Chucks.
As one mentioned à good but mostly expensive Chuck Ok but collets are quicker removing worpieces and better centered for lot less money.
Just My 2 ct
Grts
T


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[Zathros]

Brino even à cheap 3jaw Chuck is more expensive here than à complete er25 collet set with holder. It depends where you buy off course and were you live off course but What is keeping you from searching outside the borders. I bought à few sets of the cheapest er series from 11 up to 35 and they deliver more satisfying results than default chuck from the lathe that cost me the same as the whole collet range I have. I guess Chuck are more expensive here in europe.



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[Zathros]

Okay, for the hobby machinists with Swiss lathes, please ignore my comments.

I have à made in swiss lathe milling combi set. And their chucks are not that good as I like them to be. So therefor I use collets where I can. Even so I found out that à lot of their acesories are just imported from Some of the better Chinese factories. Which is cheaper to buy directly from the Oriënt side of this 3rd rock from the sun.



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[mikey]

...this 3rd rock from the sun.

Have never been to Rotterdam but have seen pictures that some friends took of your beautiful city - it is just stunning, especially at night.

 

[Zathros]

Have never been to Rotterdam but have seen pictures that some friends took of your beautiful city - it is just stunning, especially at night.

That's why I love to ride My bicycle at night also. And make those parts myself often. And off course in lathe and milling forums.
For My other hobby astronomy it is less suited by light polution tho.


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[darkzero]

Says the guy with an Adjust-tru chuck!

I've got 2 Set-Tru chucks & a cheap chuck that I turned into a Tap-Tru but I still use the 4-jaw indy for times I have to dial something in where my Set-Trus won't work.

That and my 4-jaw is bigger than my Set-Tru chucks so it has a larger capacity & it grips much harder. I like my most used chucks to be one size smaller than my 4 jaw. I don't like cranking down on my scroll chucks hard so when I need to really hold something tight I'm happy to use the 4-jaw, plus it's fun dialing in.

I adapted a collet chuck to my lathe but honestly I never use it. I only use it when I'm working on really small stuff, 6-jaws hitting my knuckles is not fun, I don't want anymore of that pain. I have an ER chuck & it's slow to use. Maybe if I had a 5C collet closer setup I would use them more but I doubt I will ever go that route.