collets?

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sgimbel

sgimbel

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Round Rock, Texas
I bought a 4 sided chuck for drilling but it really marks up the blanks. I don't understand collets at all. Does a piece screw on the headstock and then the collet piece slides in and you scrw it down? Or is it MT 1/2? PSI is out and I don't know where else to look for them. Anyhelp available? Thanks!
 
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Generally speaking you have a collet holder that mounts on the lathe, then you have different sized collets that fit into the holder and are tightened down to grip the work piece. Tightening is acomplished sometimes by a screw on cap that compressess the collet or by use of a draw tube or bolt to pull it tight through the head stock. Some head stocks are made to accept collets without an adapter.
 
Beall sells a collet holder that will mount on the screw section of most wood lathes. PSI's is similar to this one also.

They are good for holding collets that can hold items up to .75 inches in diameter or there abouts. They are both ER32 collets.

The collets are available from Beall or PSI in a set of 5 that has some gaps in what you can hold. They are also available on ebay in sets up to 18-19 that don't have major gaps. 800watt is a popular ebay seller used by many.

There are many other sizes of collets (ER16, etc.) but most are designed to work on metal lathes and may not be readily adaptable to wood lathes. So check that it will work before you buy.
 
There's a Dixie Tool Crib off 71 south of Austin, I'm sure they have or can get any type, size or style of collet you could imagine, and the chuck to go with it. You just gotta be able to pay for it.

Collet chucks and their various and assorted collets, accessories, and paraphernalia are machine tools, and are manufactured and usually sold to professional machinists, who are willing and able to pay top dollar for tooling as long as the quality is very high. to walk into a machine supply store and buy an off the shelf collet chuck and set of collets, you could very easily pay upwards of $2000.00

We, on the other hand are for the most part a bunch of cheap old skinflints who will squeeze a penny till Lincoln screams. The cheapest way I know of to get set up with a usable chuck and collets is buying chinese made direct throught ebay. You could probably set yourself up with a morse taper collet chuck and small set of collets for under 100 bucks, if you wait till they get here from hong kong. The next possibility is to order a screw on chuck from either PSI (who are out of stock) or JR Beall (more expensive, but sexier tooling).

You pays your money, and you takes your chances.
 
Discussion on collets have have every week/or so from an earlier person there are two main primary sources for wood turners PSI and Beall. CUSA carries Beall.

PSI cost $89.95 / 5 collets 1/4,3/8,1/2,5/8,& 3/4. The tighting system for PSI is different from Beall.

their out of stock

Beall cost complete set $ 163.00 with 5 collects 1/4,3/8,1/2,5/8,& 3/4.
the collets are 19.00 ea beyond the set. There are two small wrenches for tightening on the Beall chuck.


the Beall chuck is *83.00 at beall and $ 79.99 at CUSA And another company that George had posted sells ER-32 collets for 8.95 each. see below.

http://www.discount-tools.com/ER32-collets.cfm

You can buy the chuck from beall and er collets for 8.95/ea with 5 collect send 124dollar.

There is also 800watt to purchase a complete set of collets . Do not know the price.

This is my next purchase in tools for the lathe:smile:. hope this helps
 
Just received my PSI collet chuck from Wood N Whimsies. I plan to add a few individual collets to fill in the sizes above 3/4" from Ebay.
 
Lenny said:
Just received my PSI collet chuck from Wood N Whimsies. I plan to add a few individual collets to fill in the sizes above 3/4" from Ebay.
Click to expand...

Lenny,I have the PSI collet chuck and really like it.Naturally the first thing I wanted to do was drill some 30 cal bullets and none of the 5 collets was the right size,so I made a makeshift collet insert to do until I could order the right collet from EBAY.My education started then,the seller indicated on their page that the item would be shipped in two days,I didn't know that that meant that in two days they might get in touch with HONG KONG:mad:.The collet arrived about 5 weeks later.The next one I ordered I was finally smart enough to contact the seller to find out if the item was in this part of the world,it was and I got it in about 5 days,so whoever you order from it might be worthwhile to contact them.Good luck.John
 
sgimbel said:
I bought a 4 sided chuck for drilling but it really marks up the blanks. I don't understand collets at all. Does a piece screw on the headstock and then the collet piece slides in and you scrw it down? Or is it MT 1/2? PSI is out and I don't know where else to look for them. Anyhelp available? Thanks!
Click to expand...


There's a member who just listed a PSI collet for sale.http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62976
 
papNal said:
Lenny,I have the PSI collet chuck and really like it.Naturally the first thing I wanted to do was drill some 30 cal bullets and none of the 5 collets was the right size,so I made a makeshift collet insert to do until I could order the right collet from EBAY.My education started then,the seller indicated on their page that the item would be shipped in two days,I didn't know that that meant that in two days they might get in touch with HONG KONG:mad:.The collet arrived about 5 weeks later.The next one I ordered I was finally smart enough to contact the seller to find out if the item was in this part of the world,it was and I got it in about 5 days,so whoever you order from it might be worthwhile to contact them.Good luck.John
Click to expand...

I am quickly learning about these drop ship sellers on Ebay too, so I feel your pain!
 
papNal said:
Lenny,I have the PSI collet chuck and really like it.Naturally the first thing I wanted to do was drill some 30 cal bullets and none of the 5 collets was the right size,so I made a makeshift collet insert to do until I could order the right collet from EBAY.My education started then,the seller indicated on their page that the item would be shipped in two days,I didn't know that that meant that in two days they might get in touch with HONG KONG:mad:.The collet arrived about 5 weeks later.The next one I ordered I was finally smart enough to contact the seller to find out if the item was in this part of the world,it was and I got it in about 5 days,so whoever you order from it might be worthwhile to contact them.Good luck.John
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I too have had the Hong Kong 5 week wait. Once is more than enough.
 
Lenny said:
Just received my PSI collet chuck from Wood N Whimsies. I plan to add a few individual collets to fill in the sizes above 3/4" from Ebay.
Click to expand...

Lenny, i was under the impression that ER 32 only goes up to 3/4", or am i wrong . I would love to go above 3/4" but i heard it was very costly. Carl
 
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