Looking to buy a collet chuck set. Opinions?

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Mike D

Mike D

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Joined
Jan 4, 2005
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296
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Battle Ground Washington
I'm looking to purchase a collet chuck set and have read reviews on Woodcraft for the wood river model as well as the set offered by PSI. I saw the set at Craft USA but they don't give the sizes of collets supplied with the Beall Collet system. What collet chucks do you use and are you happy with the tool? Pros & Cons would be helpful.
Thanks!
 
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Mike, I have the Woodcraft Wood River, it has a morse taper,so for safety you should use a draw bar to hold it in. I got it on sale and the price was good but a screw on collet would be eaiser and quicker but costs more.

Dave
 
The one I have is the PSI version. The collets are the same as the CSUSA version the only difference between the two is with the supplied spindle adapters. Many like the Beal and I'm sure it is a fine tool, however, I don't believe it comes with collets, making it much more expensive. I purchased extra ER32 collets from eBay, a complete set of metrics. That is when I fully realized it's versatility!
 
I have the PSI one, but to date have only used it for a couple of things. I havn't expanded my collets yet, but even the ones that it comes with are good.
 
Check out amtools.com for collets. The gripping range of an ER32 collet is 1/16" or (~1mm). I prefer the metric ones as they cover the full range of sizes with no gaps. I believe the imperial ones have small gaps where you will not be able to grip certain sizes.
 
Thanks for the input guys, and the link Randy!

Randy I just looked at the link and the metric set looks quite complete. For $129.00 not bad at all.
 
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I would not recommend a collet chuck that had a morse taper. One of the great uses of the collet chuck is to drill rounded blanks. You can slide your blank into the collet and back into the chuck with the screw on ones. With the Mandrell you can get them in as far and they are not supported as well for drilling.
 
I have two Bealls, one for my midi lathes and one for my PM 3520B. PSI wasn't making them back then so I can't comment on them. That said, I got my collets as a set on ebay.
 
I have the Beall and the PSI.

The PSI has some runout, whereas the Beall runs true.
The PSI has a nicer knurled grip that is easier to turn without a tool and is cheaper.

I still prefer the Beall due to its trueness.

I also recommend a complete set of metric collets on Ebay for about $75 -- from 3mm to 20mm. That is way cheaper and more useful than trying to buy individual collets.
 
PSI collet chuck that threads on is 1 by 8 threaded with a 3/4 by 16 insert.

CUSA collet chuck threads onto a 1 1/4 by 8 thread, common to many larger lathes, and has a 1 by 8 insert.

I went with the CUSA. I did not need the 3/4 by 16; and could use both threadings on my lates.

Run-out was about one thousandth.
 
I have a Beall, a PSI and a CSUSA. I use all three and the er32 collets (bought on Amazon) fits all 3 chucks nicely. The Beall is my favorite because it has far less run out than the other 2, is a much smaller body without the knurling (once you grind all the skin off of your left pinky a time or two, you'll understand why that's important) AND of the 3, the Beall is the only one of the chuck bodies made in the USA.

The Beall costs nearly twice as much as the other two, but IMHO, it is a more accurate tool. Any of the three chucks are somewhat dependent on the quality of the er32 collets (which all seem to be made in the same factory in China) and any of the three should meet your needs. It comes down to personal preference.

Personally, I'd pass on the Wood River chuck as it is a morse tape chuck, which kinda defeats the usefulness of a collet chuck, as it is difficult to put anything "through" the chuck because of the Morse Taper.
 
Oh yea, one other thing. The PSI and CSUSA chucks seem to weight about twice as much as the Beall. The little Jet lathe seems to struggle a little bit with the bigger chucks.
 
PenMan1 said:
I have a Beall, a PSI and a CSUSA. I use all three and the er32 collets (bought on Amazon) fits all 3 chucks nicely. The Beall is my favorite because it has far less run out than the other 2, is a much smaller body without the knurling (once you grind all the skin off of your left pinky a time or two, you'll understand why that's important) AND of the 3, the Beall is the only one of the chuck bodies made in the USA.

The Beall costs nearly twice as much as the other two, but IMHO, it is a more accurate tool. Any of the three chucks are somewhat dependent on the quality of the er32 collets (which all seem to be made in the same factory in China) and any of the three should meet your needs. It comes down to personal preference.

Personally, I'd pass on the Wood River chuck as it is a morse tape chuck, which kinda defeats the usefulness of a collet chuck, as it is difficult to put anything "through" the chuck because of the Morse Taper.
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Thanks Andy! I've already written off the Woodriver version because of the taper. I did forget to mention that my lathe is the Jet 1014VS. I don't mind paying for good tools and being as the Beall is made in the USA and has little to no runout makes it high on the list. I just need to weigh all the variables.
 
I've had a Beall, unfortunately I let it go with a lathe I sold. I also have the PSI. It is good. I use it a lot, but miss the Beall. The Beall would be my first choice.
 
I have the Beall collet chuck also and love it. It did come with 5 collets but you will normally end up needs some of the in between sizes which he sells individually. When I ordered the in between ones from Beall I realized the collets are from China so that was a little disappointing. So it probably doesn't matter where you get the collets from.
 
Thanks all you folks. I think I'm going with the Beall Chuck and will pick up the collets from another source that I found through Andrew's link. Thanks Andrew for the link as it was very informative and helped me decide on the Beall. Now I juts need to sell some pens to subsidize the cost. Thanks again you guys are great!
 
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