Collet question ?

Hi, just got my 1st mill today, a Tree 2UVR which to me is in great condition and makes my home shop pretty much complete and all US made. The question is that it takes Z collets of which I have a set of fractionals but would like to get the #,letter and the #2MT for my chuck, I can't find them listed in any catalogs. Does anyone know where I can find them or should I make them on a lathe? The 2MT is probably the one needed most,also, which would work better on this machine,a phase or rotory convertor?? Thanks for any help you can give, looking to make chips, Steve.

Steve, my own opinion, for whatever its worth, is that a set of fractional size collets are all you will ever really need.

Just get a couple of good Albrecht drill chucks, say, a 3/8" and a 1/2" capacity sizes, and fit them with 1/2" straight shanks, trimming the shanks to the length of your collets.

For any drilling above the 1/2" size, use the common 1/2" straight shank drills, which are cheap and readily available.

If I remember correctly the collets for a Tree mill go up to 3/4", so you could opt to fit the 1/2" Albrecht with a 3/4" shank, for a little bit more strength/holding power. You can also get straight shank drills with 3/4" shanks, from some suppliers.

If you really must hold letter size or metric drills in a collet, simply make little steel split bushes for them.

Anything is possible, of course, but I'd strongly doubt that the collets for a Tree mill were ever available in number or letter drill sizes, except on a very expensive special order basis.

cheers

Carla

Steve,

Carla answered your collet questions with the usual perfection. Nothing to add.

I started out with a simple phase converter for my 3 hp, 3 phase lathe motor. It worked, but not that well. A friend gave me an old 3 phase motor which I used as an idler with the phase converter I already had. It worked a lot better, permitting me to have a working reverse. Still not the best in the world, as power is somewhat down. If I were going to get something today, it would be a variable frequency drive. They can now be bought for reasonable money, and you have the best of both worlds with variable speed. Good luck!

Jim

Steve,
I found a place call Galaxy Industries I think they were in Ohio. They began making the Z, Y
etc. series collets when Universal folded. The prices seemed reasonable. If you can'tfind them let me know and I'll look through my receipts.

Sage Tool is selling some Z collets on Ebay. They are local to me and have been decent folks to deal with.

Sage Tool - Ebay

Mike

Double Taper collets in the Z size were made by Unversal from 1/4 to 3/4 inch. The collets are 1.12" in Dia. and 1.5" in length. Dont get these confused with ZZ collets which are 2" in length.

Hi! I want to thank you all for the great info and it's good to know of a collet source and I now realize the fractionals are all I'll ever need. A friend is loaning me a phase convertor until I can find a 3ph motor to build a rotary. Hopefully I'll have it running tomorrow and I can finish a few projects that I've been milling on my lathes, which you know is a pita. Thanks again, Steve !

Zombie thread, I know...

Menace, if you insist on letter or number size collets of a specific size, you may find them on ebay.

Here is an example (for zz collets, though):

Universal ZZ Style Collet Letter N Drill Bit | eBay

Universal ZZ Style Collet Letter O Drill Bit | eBay

Universal ZZ Style Collet Letter H Drill Bit | eBay

Guess that's just teasing you, so let's see if ebay has letter size Z collets:

z collet (number, letter) | eBay

32 results at the moment.