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B3 Collets Wanted

techymechy

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 24, 2018
I'm purchasing a Bridgeport M head that requires a B3 Collet. The head comes with a good 1/2" and 3/8" collet. I am hoping to fine a 1/4" collet (at least). Does anyone have good B3 collets for sale or know where to find these (besides Hardinge). I'm a home hobbiest.

Thanks,

Dave
 
Howdy,

I'm still pretty new to this forum. I have had two guys reply to this post that have had zero postings and have referred me to someone else.

Is this normal? I'm a little dubious of people sending IM's to contact someone else who has what you are looking for. What are your thoughts?

BTW, I'm still looking for collets.
 
I don't have a collet for you, but chasing a link or a "seller" that has no history is asking to get scammed.
Good luck in your search
 
Not trying to be mean or sarcastic, although those ARE some of my superpowers.

Consider doing one of the following:
1: Look for a replacement spindle that is either MT2 of BS7
2: Part it out to make some money and buy a head that takes either MT2 of BS7
3: See if someone can regrind it to MT2

A set of collets just sold on ebay for $175, but the last set I saw before that was something like $600.

You might get lucky, or you might be waiting five years to put that head to use.

Steve
 
I'm still pretty new to this forum. I have had two guys reply to this post that have had zero postings and have referred me to someone else.

-100% guaranteed to be a scam. They'll show you a photo of whatever it is you're looking for, probably found in the depths of Google so a reverse search doesn't show it near the top of the listings, they'll have you PayPal using "friends and family", or send a money order or Western Union or something, and then ghost on you.

It's getting to be one of the most common scams out there. Doesn't matter if it's only a $40 part or something- $40 here, $20 there, $80 somewhere else, it all adds up, and costs them nothing but time. Moreover, people usually just go "it was only forty bucks, it's not worth filing a report", etc.

If you get another such offer, forward the username to a moderator so they can ban them.

Doc.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Doc. - Good idea about reporting this guy. I just forwarded the IM to mebfab (who I think is the moderator for this forum).

Steve, Thanks for your advice, but I think I'll proceed with the head purchase. I live in Oregon and I've been looking for a M head for about 1 year now. The only heads I've found are on eBay and are either incomplete or look like something the dog drug in. This head looks good and is owned by a machinist who works for NASA who seems like a real stand up guy. The head comes with 4 collets (1/2", 3/8", 3/16" and a .281"). I'd like to get a 1/4" and a 1/8" collet and potentially other collets that are in better shape. If necessary, I might try to make my own collets and harden them. These are still being made by Hardinge and a place in India. The place in India is actually a pretty reasonable price for a new collet, but
one has to order 10 of them (over $1000), which I'm not willing to do (like I said, I'm a hobbyist and the SWMBO would not approve). There is a spindle shop in Portland, OR who regrinds spindles. I have absolutely no idea if they would do a job like this nor how much they would charge for the service.

I was just hoping that someone here would have a couple of collets. I would think that someone would make these to sell them, but maybe the $250 that Hardinge sells these for is the true cost of manufacture.

Dave
 
The place in India is actually a pretty reasonable price for a new collet, but one has to order 10 of them (over $1000), which I'm not willing to do

Hey, maybe buy a bunch and sell them on ebay!

And yes, making your own is an alternative.

Another possibility is to make an ER collet chuck with a shank shaped like a B3 collet.

Steve
 
Hi Steve,

Actually, I was thinking about doing this. Maybe someone could go in with me and we could buy 10 collets together. If I purchased 12, I could get 4 each of 1/2", 3/8", and 1/4". I think that this would be sufficient for almost everyone's needs for use with this head. It would be like $1300 for 12 collets.

The thing I don't like about the ER collet is that it extends beyond your quill. The head is in a rather limited Z height as it is and the extension of the ER collet would causes issues with the rigidity (although an ER20 may be the right size for this use).

Dave
 
I purchased a Hardinge split 1/2”. To 1/8” bushing and it works great.

I thought that I should ask the group if they have a 1/8”, 5/8” and 7/16” B3 collets for sale.
 
Howdy,

I thought that I would push this to the top. I’m still looking for a 1/8”, 5/16”, and 7/16” B3 collet.

Dave
 








 
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