Please identify this collet

Hi All,
I recently bought a small dividing head on UK fleabay and have stripped it down for inspection. There is one collet that came with it but there was no ID on the head and I don`t recognise the make of collet.
I believe that the head is of continental manufacture but the collet is imperial. there is a logo on the face of the collet, can anyone recognise the manufacturer?
Alan

Unless you are strictly a collector, the maker of the collet is less important than the style/model of collet. Many styles of collets are/were made by multiple makers. And few used collets will be correctly listed by their maker, while many will at least be listed by their style.

With some dimensions, we could help you identify that style of collet. Or you could look at the rather extensive sets of collet dimensions list over at Tools-N-Gizmos. Please note the large section of links labeled "Collets". I suggest you start with the page entitled "21 B&S ..."

sfriedberg Thank you for your reply.
The dimensions of the collet from memory are: length from shoulder to end 46 mm. Diameter of small end 32 mm. Diameter of large end circa 43 mm. Diameter of split end circa 32 mm.
I was hoping to ID the manufacturer of the dividing head by the make of the collet which has a logo engraved on the face as shown in the photo.
Alan
PS, just looked through the catalogue and it`s none of those collets listed.

Bill,
Sorry, but i`m not Norsk but a Brit living here in Oslo sammen med min Norsk kone. I`m becoming brain dead with the lack of excitement.
You are absolutely right, I would have posted a photo of the head but I stripped it down for examination and haven't put it back together again. I was sure that the logo on the collet would have identified the maker. I`ve just literally looked through thousands of collets listed on fleabay but without luck! I suspect that the collet is probably German but not Deckel as I have an FP1.
Alan

Bill,
Devastating logic!
Herewith the photos of the disemboweled head. The height of the centreline above the table is 90mm. I looked at the design more closely and it is a high quality item! the spindle is located by taper plain bearings at either end, which requires some skill to put together during manufacture, however the (I`m assuming) poor apprentice that drilled and tapped the holes for the dividing arm boss made a mess of the job. see photo.
Out of curiosity I tried to slide the alignment blocks under the body into the FP1 tee slot in the table and to my surprise it fitted perfectly! Alan

Bill,
Adding more photos. Alan

I have some collets with those markings but I'm afraid I have no idea to the manufacturer. Coincidentally they are for the Deckel FP1, either the L20 or L16 for my early high speed head. I feel they are good quality but as I said "no idea who the maker is".
Dan

Small dividing head for a Gack shaper. Nice little tool.

Schaublin collets I think.

Thank you all for your help.
It was an unexpected answer, I would have bet that the head was from a milling machine and now I can use it on the FP1 without having to lug that beautiful but heavy FP1 dividing head assembly onto the saddle. All I need to do now is to find some collets.
Alan

I`ts me again,
I`ve been beavering away trying to find out what machines the Gack type collet fitted. The Swiss website for Shaublin listed a similar collet but the angle of the taper was 16 degrees and the Gack type 10 degrees, so that the collet is not a Shaublin type. In an online catalogue by the German manufacturer of collets Nann, I found the collet listed on page 65 type 448E. This will fit the Gack dividing head but as a poor old pensioner I don`t even dare to ask the price!
I enclose a drawing of the collet with the principal dimensions added and if anyone has any spares or can suggest what machines it fitted, I would appreciate it if you could let me know.
Alan

Thank you for the followup and the drawing, bentley1930!

Hi All,

Just back from my grueling visit to the UK and France, during which I picked up a set of Gack collets.

What happened was, I had received a PM from "Pressbrake1" otherwise known as Clive. He told me that he had a set of Gack collets that he`d picked up in a deal but were of no use to him. We struck up a deal and rather than have them posted to Norway we arranged that I would pick them up during my next trip to the UK.

Clive lives in an area of Essex that has many unmade roads and a lack of road name plates and after a frustrating search and telephone calls, I was able to arrive at his house. I had a brief tour of his workshop and inspected the collets.



The collets are stored in the plywood open box shown above. There is a complete set of imperial sizes ranging from 1/16" up to 1" in 1/16" increments plus some accessories.



Above is shown a centre of some kind, can anybody tell us what function it performs?



Here is an accessory with a 5/8" spigot, which I believe is for attaching to something so that it could be mounted in the dividing head, there are two of these.

Yesterday I offered up one of the collets to my dividing head and confirmed that they were the correct collets for it. This is a nice story in which I was able to meet the seller and collect a set of almost impossible to find collets. Now I will have to put the dividing head back together and machine up the missing eccentric clamping lever and tee nut so that it will be ready for use. Thank you Clive.

Now I have the imperial collets, does anyone have a set of Metric collets?

Alan

Alan:
That collet with the pointed center i believe is a "Driving Center" designed to be used in conjunction with a tail stock.
The diamond shaped point enters the center hole of the part, enough pressure is applied via the tail stock that the diamond corners digs in, and allow driving the part with just that center...Good when one needs to machine the entire length of a part.
Eliminates OD clamps, dogs collets and chucks....Not especially good for heavy work, usually employed for finish work.
Not the best design as it disturbs the center hole and complicated future operations..

Better system uses a conventional center that is spring loaded, surrounded by several (3 or4 ) thin blades that are positioned radially...the blades dig into the end face of the part while the center supports the work.
The spring loaded arrangement allows for differences in the center hole depth while allowing the blades to come into contact....

Face Drivers and Face Driver Technology
Cheers Ross

Hi All,

Ross, thank you for the explanation and the website.

Much appreciated.

Alan

You can see that driving center within the link in post #13. Roughly half way down there's two pictures that make clear its use.

Hi All,

Milland, thank you for pointing out that the centre is shown on post# 13. Looking through this post again reminded me that I only have one dividing plate, so will have to search for the other two as well as the metric collets.

Alan