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5-C Square collets

Lanso

Cast Iron
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Location
Cerritos, CA
5-C Square collets

I bought a Lista cabinet 1/2 full of tooling at an auction many years ago and included was a set of Hardinge square collets from 1/8 to 3/4 in 1/64 increments.
Wow! Thats great! - I thought.
I already had 3 or 4 that I occasionally use but lately when I open that drawer l wonder who would ever need a complete set square collets?
 
5-C Square collets

I bought a Lista cabinet 1/2 full of tooling at an auction many years ago and included was a set of Hardinge square collets from 1/8 to 3/4 in 1/64 increments.
Wow! Thats great! - I thought.
I already had 3 or 4 that I occasionally use but lately when I open that drawer l wonder who would ever need a complete set square collets?

"NEED"? WTF does "need" have to do with it?

They EXIST, dammit!

Tool-whore packrats is whom it is as acquires such things.

Like ME. Of course. Got a price in mind? Wouldn't happen to also have HEX wuddja?

I like to NOT buy stuff ever' once in a while.

Sorta recharges the batteries for the NEXT round of damned foolishness, yah?

:D
 
Thats a good answer!
My post wasn't looking for a sale even though I would love to free-up a drawer.
I've become increasingly curious why a shop would have them.
 
Thats a good answer!
My post wasn't looking for a sale even though I would love to free-up a drawer.
I've become increasingly curious why a shop would have them.

"Long ago and far away.." Well.. Western Pa... our "body" model hearing aids relied on square stand-off posts for this and that. They needed a round rebated shoulder and / or essentially always drilled and tapped, usually at both ends, though some were made such that one end would become a rivit.

Square 3C collets, (we made our own "4-finger" ones in-house in that era.) brass or Alpaca metal stock in long rods, and we reliably, and cheaply, soon had our many tens of thousands of such posts a year.

Not that unusual a need, square stock OR hexagonal, actually. Think it over, you've probably seen similar goods in use as part of some greater assembly.

Lathe work, slow ...or specialized and blitz-fast, but it is wot it is.

Not a lot of luck, to date, at getting Genetically modified birds to assure they can be shat to shape in high volume from precisely sized and shaped cloaca's.

It's the damned threads, y'see. There's SOME things even a greedy Seagull will not - or cannot - DO!

You'd have to know cloaca's? "BIRDS A ss ..... utch peculiar animals.."

:D
 
I’ve used them on a Hardinge quick release collet, capstan type lathe. All i can say is when turning from the square bar, they are a bitch for juddering around in the collets. But when you need them, they do the job and are handy as hell.
 
Like some (no names please), I tend to collect sets of things. I have had the 5C round collets by 64ths for around forty years. It was maybe thirty years ago that I bought my Hardinge 5C hex and square collet sets, but not any 64th sizes. I paid the new list price, which was lower back then, of course. And I have used some, but not all, of them. You know, hex keys are handy for making small high strength hex head bolts, so you want the collets that fit the standard key sizes. A couple of years ago, I got a new set of Crawford 5C square collets by 1 mm increments on eBay. I have some 8 mm square stock that might need to get turned sometime, but no other excuse.

Larry.
 
Larry and Thermite,
You all need to get a complete set of rectangles also. The 1/4 X 1/2 inch was purchased off the shelf. I have used it on 2 different jobs. You all are falling down here. :-)
colletrect.jpg
 
Larry and Thermite,
You all need to get a complete set of rectangles also. The 1/4 X 1/2 inch was purchased off the shelf. I have used it on 2 different jobs. You all are falling down here. :-)
View attachment 288369

Keep runnin' yer mout', oh ye of little faith!

EDM_Exists.jpg

"Falling down" into cavities of any shape hard milling and/or sinker EDM in combo can deliver, yah?

You'd have to ken the distinction between Tool & Die MAKERS vs Machinastits?

"Run what yah got"

vs

"Run whatever I can clever-up to GIVE yah to improve throughput"

This one ain't my work, BTW. Bought used. For re-purposing.

I'd have used a 4-way split. And tend to polish s**t. Because I can.

:D
 
I have some specials including step collets. The possible combination of rectangles is almost infinite, not even sure if the common sizes are stocked or I called on the right day. :-)
 
I have some specials including step collets. The possible combination of rectangles is almost infinite, not even sure if the common sizes are stocked or I called on the right day. :-)

The one pictured actually is from the "extra deep" side of my step/pot collet Hardinge collection.

Nominal 5C at core, but the deeper, meatier ones need the stout outer forcing cone at the back of standardized outer rim. That cone is run up a "false nose" that replicates a Hardinge threaded by means of a hook-type pin-spanner after the wimpy 5C takes up the initial strain.

Costly to make, but still.. there are a whole lot of "parts" on-Planet where these - or comparable goods from other-than-Hardinge gurus of workholding - make superb economic sense.

See "Ortlieb" for a taste.

And they have tons of competition running balls to the walls on CNC spindles, the whole world over. "Custom" tooling and workholding still lives.

Bit of fun in it, actually, as to making the tool, jig, workholder, or fixture as can make it faster and easier to run multiple tens of thousands of parts.

"Fun" compared to being the poor bored serf who has to do the actual RUNNING of 'em, shift after shift, anyway!

:D
 
Larry and Thermite,
You all need to get a complete set of rectangles also. The 1/4 X 1/2 inch was purchased off the shelf. I have used it on 2 different jobs. You all are falling down here. :-)

My Swiss Reishauer 4-jaw combination (both independent and universal) is a bit more useful than a set of 5C rectangular collets because it is bigger and also does repetitive (on purpose) eccentric turning. Plus it holds both inch and metric parts. But it is too big to put on my Hardinge lathes.

Hardinge has a lot of collets on their shelves. They used claim to have all 5C rounds in .001" increments ready to ship. I bought a .300 from them to hold a batch of parts with that odd size and it had the size nicely marked. When I bought an 8 mm round from them, they were out of stock and crossed out the .315 mark on one of their decimal collets and crudely burned in 8 mm by hand. That was one ugly collet. I sent it back and said I would wait for a new 8 mm with proper marking. That was in the 1980's and I told them to shape up if they expected to make it to their 100th year in 1990.

Larry

DSC01188.jpg DSC01189.jpg DSC01190.jpg
 
My Swiss Reishauer 4-jaw combination (both independent and universal) is a bit more useful than a set of 5C rectangular collets because it is bigger and also does repetitive (on purpose) eccentric turning. Plus it holds both inch and metric parts.

LOL! Some folk are puzzled as to why I harbour five faceplates in three types for the 10EE, expect to mount store-bought Blanchard-ground sub-plates to 'em. Then get to work...

You would not be among the surprised, of course!

Store-bought workholding becomes more hindrance than help? A "barrier", even?

Just plot and scheme yer way around it...

:D
 
Why would a shop need a full set of square collets? In a rational world, very few would. I guess there are some out there where there is a real emphasis on being able to do almost anything at the drop of a hat. If I were in such a situation I would want a real deep stock of tooling and materials too.

Some places, notably government facilities, have a budget. And at the end of the year there is a rush to spend ALL the leftover money because if we don't spend all of it this year, then they will cut the budget next year. Guys will then order anything that strikes their eye. Your tax money at work.

And then there's office politics. I once worked under a department head that did not like me. He flat wanted to eliminate me. I had most of my own tools at work and that was saving the company a bundle. But I guess that must have become a subject of discussion at a level where I was not even aware of it. Anyway, one day I was told to order everything, all the tools I needed and then remove my own tools from the property. I made up an awful long and expensive list, figuring they would give it up. Well, to my surprise, they said buy all of it. I should have added even more. Office politics! I know there were tools in that purchase that were never used. Probably never used even today.
 








 
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