Im' starting this new thread on ER-16 collets and chucks with something I wrote in a previous thread about the quality/price of boring bars:
Making a long story short for now, I need a set that I only will use a few times a year, but that I need to have no worse than ~0.001" TIR when I do use them. Because of other tolerances involved, it would be a waste of money to buy collets with 0.0002" TIR, because that precision would be lost by other parts of the system. No one replied to my question about US Shop Tools, so I decided to buy the $164 import Enco set with a U.S.-made ER-16 collet chuck with straight shank (i.e. shank into mill collet into mill spindle, hence the buildup of tolerances). They arrived today, and this will be the first installment of what I found. The Chinese collets were, as expected, packaged in a cheap wooden box. However, unlike what you may be expecting, the U.S.-made collet chuck is defective.
My first couple of tries found TIRs >0.007" for the 1/8" collet, which seemed impossible even for the cheapest of Chinese collets. It took me a few minutes before I identified the problem. The nut on the collet chuck has an internal ring machined into it intended to help remove the collets, and it is totally out of alignment with the bore. I don't even see how they machined it so off center, so my first thought was it is a separate ring that is stuck in its groove (despite it appearing to be one piece). Bypassing Enco, I called the manufacturer directly, who confirmed the nut is a single machined piece. I took a picture with my iphone through one eyepiece of my stereomicroscope that I sent them, and they promised to send me a new one (the photo isn't of a quality worth posting here, but they know what they are looking at so it is clear to them).
At this point I went with mid-priced items but received a defectively manufactured U.S. part and a set of Chinese collets whose TIR I can't check as yet. If I actually needed these ER-16 collets for waiting job, I would be dead in the water. To be continued...
--with chuck on 3/4" straight shank--
ETM (MSC), 0.0004" TIR, set of 10 ER-16 collets, $543
ETM (Enco), same as above, $400
Shars, no fractional set, but interestingly their metric 10 piece set with chuck states TIR 0.15mm (=0.006"), $100
--without chuck--
ETM (MSC), (no TIR spec in catalog, but presumably 0.0004" as above), set of 10, $388
Erickson (MSC), (no TIR spec in catalog) set of 12, $346
Interstate (MSC), (no TIR spec in catalog) set of 10, $231
Enco (Enco), (no TIR spec in catalog), set of 10, $164
Accu-Collets (US Shop Tools), 0.0005" or better TIR, set of 11, $154
Shars, 0.0003" TIR, set of 7, $65
Chinese (eBay), set of 9, $25 including shipping
So, does anyone have experience with the stuff US Shop Tools sells? Their price and specs, if accurate, give the best price/performance of any. Other than the $25 eBay set, that is.
Making a long story short for now, I need a set that I only will use a few times a year, but that I need to have no worse than ~0.001" TIR when I do use them. Because of other tolerances involved, it would be a waste of money to buy collets with 0.0002" TIR, because that precision would be lost by other parts of the system. No one replied to my question about US Shop Tools, so I decided to buy the $164 import Enco set with a U.S.-made ER-16 collet chuck with straight shank (i.e. shank into mill collet into mill spindle, hence the buildup of tolerances). They arrived today, and this will be the first installment of what I found. The Chinese collets were, as expected, packaged in a cheap wooden box. However, unlike what you may be expecting, the U.S.-made collet chuck is defective.
My first couple of tries found TIRs >0.007" for the 1/8" collet, which seemed impossible even for the cheapest of Chinese collets. It took me a few minutes before I identified the problem. The nut on the collet chuck has an internal ring machined into it intended to help remove the collets, and it is totally out of alignment with the bore. I don't even see how they machined it so off center, so my first thought was it is a separate ring that is stuck in its groove (despite it appearing to be one piece). Bypassing Enco, I called the manufacturer directly, who confirmed the nut is a single machined piece. I took a picture with my iphone through one eyepiece of my stereomicroscope that I sent them, and they promised to send me a new one (the photo isn't of a quality worth posting here, but they know what they are looking at so it is clear to them).
At this point I went with mid-priced items but received a defectively manufactured U.S. part and a set of Chinese collets whose TIR I can't check as yet. If I actually needed these ER-16 collets for waiting job, I would be dead in the water. To be continued...