I want a collet chuck

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Haynie

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I want a collet chuck for my metal lathe not my wood lathe

My metal lathe is 3mt and has a 4 inch plate the chucks bolt too

I have discovered that I know nothing about collet chucks.

Help please
 
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I saw these but will I be able to slide a blank all the way through like it seems folks do with the Beall Collet stuff for like drilling?
 
No but the Beall system does not come with a mt3 adapter. If you want to use the Beall system you will need to buy am mt3 adpter to a thread that the Beall collet system woudl mount on. Not a great solution.
 
I have a mt2 to 3/4 -16 adapter that I mount my Beall collet on I bored it out deeper to let me push the blank farther in about 2 inches over all that lets me get the blank far enough in to drill it accurately when I need to
 
What is the threading on your headstock? Beall has a couple different sizes that thread right on to the head stock.
 
Are you saying your spindle has a 3MT hole in it? If so, you could get an ER40 3MT collet chuck for it. You do sacrifice a capability of turning pieces where there is still some long length of stock inside your spindle. I have an ER40 4MT that I use very often on my old Jet 10-24 lathe. A piece of 5/8 stock can go back ~5 inches from the collet face.

The ER system is very versatile in terms of clamping range. What do you want to do with this chuck?

Cheers,
Rich
 
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No threading on the head stock. There is a plate that the chucks bolt to. The 3MT is a hole in the middle of the plate. See page 7 of the attached ducument

Page 7 you can see a dead center in the head stock and the plate. You knock out the dead center and bolt a chuck to the plate. This leaves the MT open and clear to run something through and held by the chuck.
 

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Mark; Look at the plate carefully. Thee should be a "step" or raised ring on the plate. Measure this diameter very accurately. It should also have bolt holes in it. Either 3 or 4.
You can get an face plate with the ER32 collet chuck on the front. You may have to drill the front face plate. Bolt the plate to the back plate. True the collet chuck so it is accurately aligned. Check Chronos.uk for chuck face plates.
 
azamiryou said:
Haynie said:
That is the right idea Mike just not big enough.
Click to expand...

He linked to the 3" one, but they also have a 4" one (and it's also on sale):
Collet Chuck for ER-32 Collets 4" Dia - LittleMachineShop.com

I have their 3" and I'm very pleased with it.

Edited to add: By the way, ER-32 collets run from 3/32" up to 3/4". If you need larger (or smaller) collets, you'll need a chuck for a larger (or smaller) standard.
Click to expand...
Just sharing information..........Actually there are three sizes larger tha 3/4" in the ER32 collets that I am aware of and in my opinion, the most useful of all the collet sizes for what I do. I have the 25/32" (.781"), 20mm (.787") and 13/16" (.812").

Mark, if you decide on the ER-32 collets, grab a couple of these larger collets, you'll be glad you did!

Probably the most used collet in my set is the 25/32" because if a 3/4" round rod is a hair over .750", you aren't going to get it into the 3/4" collet without cramming the rod in and ruining the collet. Also, all of my ebonite stash is 20mm diameter and most fit into the 20mm collet but for the ones slightly larger, there's the 13/16" collet and I'm glad I have all three of them!
 
You want a 5C type of collet adapter if your going to do anything precision with that metal lathe.

The collet chucks for wood lathes (ER) are ok but if you do some research a 5C is better for close tollerance work; but the collets are more, and they don't have the range of the other type.

I run 5C on my home metal lathe, and have collets from 1/32" to 1 1/8" by 1/64" increments.

you could also get a backing plate blank for your machine and machine it to hold the other type.

What type of metal lathe do you have?
 
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I have an enco 109-1015. Not top of the line but I got it for the best price-Free- and I have watched precision auto parts be made on it so I know it can do everything I need.

Thanks for the information folks. I will be calling Enco in a couple days to find out my options. There is a flange and I have a feeling that will cause an issue. There are lots of things to digest.
 
randyrls said:
Mark; Look at the plate carefully. Thee should be a "step" or raised ring on the plate. Measure this diameter very accurately. It should also have bolt holes in it. Either 3 or 4.
You can get an face plate with the ER32 collet chuck on the front. You may have to drill the front face plate. Bolt the plate to the back plate. True the collet chuck so it is accurately aligned. Check Chronos.uk for chuck face plates.
Click to expand...

Measuring and truing that step is critical - depending on how good a job in making that plate on the end of your spindle. I hope you have a good dial indicator that you can use to true it to less than .0005

That will be the start of any runout you compound with the collet and chuck themselves. If you can't do that or it's impractical then leave enough play in the chuck mount so you can true the inside taper of the chuck. You may have to do that anyway. All that is standard procedure for a lot of chuck switching in the industry. If your chuck taper is good you can complement that with good quality collets that have a TIR of less than .0003 or .0004 --- It's all money :rolleyes: Your lathe doc didn't seem to spec any spindle runout so my guess is it's probably about .0005 or a little less if you're lucky. Be lucky!

(Remember the symbol for taper is "tau") :biggrin:

You get all that done and I think you'll be very pleased with the result.

Attached is a picture of an ER40 chuck setup on one of my machines. It has 4 axes of adjustment for precise alignment.

Cheers,
Rich
 

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From the PDF I found:
It looks like that the chuck is held on with three screws from the back Is that correct?

If so it could be possible to just get a backing plate, and somehow mount the ER type of collet chuck you want to that backing plate.

You just have to match mark how the backing plate is mounted (so it goes back the same way each time) mount the plate, and machine true to your machine, and machine it to fit your ER that you get.

I would have to look at the ER systems to see what the mount looks like to give you better instructions..

Found this link, where a guy made is own adapter.

http://www.gadgetbuilder.com/ER32Chuck.html
 
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Haynie said:
I want a collet chuck for my metal lathe not my wood lathe
My metal lathe is 3mt and has a 4 inch plate the chucks bolt too
I have discovered that I know nothing about collet chucks.
Help please
Click to expand...

If you want to turn metal round metal stock the Beall won't work. The force required for holding metal stock will ruin your Beall.

The collets you want will have a threaded opening on the back side for a draw bar. And unless you modify a collet, the standard sizes don't have much wiggle room. Maybe a few thousands of an inch.

For turning wood I liked the Beall best.
PM
 
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