Tiny collet

I need to capture a .02 dia. thread inside of a small collet. Something along the lines of the little 1/4 inch dremel style ones. The smallest sizes i have been able to find only go down to holding a 1/32 dia. piece of material. Does anyone know where i can find such a small collet? Thanks

How about a watchmaker's WW style? they can be had down to 0,15 MM, about .006".

As to where to find ond one depends how much you want to spend? Levin and Derbyshire I think still make them as well as Swiss folks....... or for a lesser quality but still OK try Sherline and then there is always Ebay........ this is the standard watchmaker's collet.... there are millions out there....... also sometimes called a 8 MM collet.

The ER styles go down to 0.5mm (.0197") in most of their collet size ranges. I mean by that you can buy a standard ER8, ER11, ER16, ER20 or ER25 collet from RegoFix in that size.

I'd bet they have smaller ones around too.

Thanks for the quick replys guys. I'm sorry I forgot to post i was looking for a Double Angle style collet. It's going into a custom block i'm making for it that gets mounted to a plate, and i figure for the low holding force about 5lbs. that style would be the cheapest and easiest style to go with. The smallest seriest of ER collets i have heard of are the ER8 and they have an overall diameter of about 3/8" I need something closer to a 1/4" total diameter.

Unless you are totally committed to double angle collets, ER or WW collets will give you better centering. I have a bunch of extensions that use 3 different sizes of DAs and I have a very poor opinion of them. Admittedly it is a used batch that I bought as a lot with varying degrees of mistreatment, but they should work better. I never had any complaints about the holding power or centering of my ERs and WWs.

Bill

Have you considered a simple pinvise?
They ususlly come with at least two reversible collets and the smallest will go down to 0.00" i.e close up completely. With one of the collet closers left off, you could hold the body of the pinvise in a suitably sized lathe collet or in an accurate 3 jaw chuck.

Rgds
Davycrocket

Just a note, both the ER and Universal Engineering's WW collets are in the "double angle" class and sometimes will be referred to as such, which may help in the search. I have and collect (for use) both WW and Z sizes

Bob

Robert Campbell Jr. said:

Just a note, both the ER and Universal Engineering's WW collets are in the "double angle" class and sometimes will be referred to as such, which may help in the search. I have and collect (for use) both WW and Z sizes

Bob

Click to expand...

But Universal WW collets are .61" diameter, much bigger than the desired 1/4 inch. Even the smallest Universal, the OW is .40 inch diameter.

And just to explain to people confused about the WW designation, Universal WW collets are completely different from Webster-Whitcomb (WW) watch lathe collets, which have an 8 mm body diameter and are shaped rather like a 5C collet.

I suppose if a single size of collet that is not commercially available is needed, you have to simply make it yourself.

Larry

L Vanice said:

I suppose if a single size of collet that is not commercially available is needed, you have to simply make it yourself.

Click to expand...

Especially if you're making a custom block ...

personally the only time I would consider hunting around in the hope of buying off the peg for such a thing would be if I wanted heaps of them, never for only ones or twos.

Clarification

By "double angle" collets, I was referring to this type

Double Angle Collet Sets

My results with them have been dismal.

By "WW" collets, I was referring to Webster-Whitcomb. I have had very good experiences with them. I had never heard of the other WW.

ER collets may be technically double angle, but the location is on the long taper and they are not subject to the tipping problem the DAs have. They also clamp all along the bore, good if the part is that long.

Bill

.02" collet

Once had to make a collet for a boars hair ? the plucker on a harpsichord we thinned a jewels saw blade or 2 down on the surface grinder and sawed it by hand .

Faulty logic.

Bocuts said:

It's going into a custom block i'm making for it that gets mounted to a plate, and i figure for the low holding force about 5lbs. that style would be the cheapest and easiest style to go with.

Click to expand...

Well...

I will disagree for the simple reason that there is nothing in the DA style that is designed to hold that small. In addition, I see very little reason given above to dismiss the 8mm watchmaker collets. This is exactly what they are made for. Heck, you could even buy the collet block stock from Levin to fit. It ain't less expensive if you can't actually find one About $400 gets you a block and collet guaranteed to hold .0002" runout:

Type WW round bore .2000", $134 (may be more for special diameters)
LevinLathe.com: PRECISION COLLETS

WW square collet block, part #0701-03, $259
LevinLathe.com: LEVIN TOOL HOLDERS.

The other, low-cost route is the same. Sherline will cost a little over $100. No specific official tolerance is specified by the manufacturer, only "...that the collets available from Sherline are accurate yet economically priced. Should extreme accuracy beyond the tolerances of these collets be required, even more accurate collets are available from other sources and cost from about $40 to $350 or more each." http://www.sherline.com/1160inst.htm

Type WW round bore, special, .200", part#2082 $50
Sherline Direct: 116000/117803 WW Collets

WW collet block set, part #2045 $60
Sherline Direct: 2045 - Index Block Set

Schaublin has an F type collet (held with a nut on the nose, probably what you want rather than a drawback collet with drawbar) with a 6mm OD and next size up is 6.75mm, just a bit over 1/4". If you want a drawbar, they have a P type with the same dimensions.