So, I bought a bunch of super-cheap ER11 collets from China. At under a euro a collet, delivered, I had a hunch they'd be bad. How bad were they? Filmed in super wobbly-o-vision.
I have not made any measurements myself, but what I have seen elsewhere, suggests that the advertised accuracies might be obtained by simply deburring the collet slots...
Damn, realised I hadn't replied to this. Yes, deburring helps a little. However, there are 2 problems with mine. The first is the exterior dimensional accuracy of the collet itself. Several of them wouldn't even engage a collet nut, that's how bad they were. The second is concentricity. The 3mm collet has a runout of 0.4mm next to the collet, and it gets significantly worse as you move away from the collet. That's after deburring... The long and short of it is that you get very much what you pay for. I paid very little, and got mostly unusable junk. this is my fault, of course, and it's the continual question to be asked with low cost gear - how low can the cost go before the result is not fit for purpose? The Chinese, like the Japanese back in the 70s, are perfectly capable of producing high quality equipment at a very competitive cost - Shahe metrology gear is a very good example. But there is a barrier below which you simply can't expect something worth the time you spend taking it out of the packaging. Anyway, thanks for the comment :)
Thank you for posting. I just ordered sets of ER 11, 20 and 32. The ER32 set was the more expensive. I need to check these before the return window closes.
For all those people who think that most economic collets with a run out of .02mm are crap.....all you are getting is a tool that has a rotating diam of + .04mm.......I've seen a lot of cheap CNC machines with spindles that run out more than that and if the CNC mill is not all that rigid the diam the tool cuts will be even bigger.
You can rightly criticise my filming technique, but at least get your content criticisms right. 0.02mm is the runout of the collet chuck (and most of that comes from the somewhat worn 8.2mm W20 collet I was gripping it with). If that was the order of magnitude of the error of the collets (which is, after all, what they were advertised as), that'd be OK for pretty much all usage, unless you're doing watchmaking stuff. That's *not* what I was getting from the collets, though. The 1/4" collet ran out .15mm, and the 5mm collet ran out over .25mm. The 2mm collet was kinda OK, same order of magnitude as the worn out swiss collet I compared it to. The 1mm collet ran out .23mm, nearly a quarter of its gripping diameter. The tolerances are totally hit and miss. That's not OK, that's shockingly awful.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision I can't comment on your testing methods but I have several sets of the "cheap" EBAY ER32, ER25 and ER11 collets and have not had any bother.....maybe you are looking for the cheapest of cheap.....you only get what you pay for in the end.......I have a manual mill and a CNC mill etc. Did you also consider that if the collet closer nut runs out it's also a factor to consider.
As long as you get a set that are good enough to fit your chuck, or your chuck has loose enough tolerances that way-out-of-spec collets will fit it, then yes, you can use them. For woodworking, I'm sure you'll be fine. However, for metal working (and you'll notice, perhaps, that my lathe is not a wood-wrangler's one, but a swiss precision bench lathe), a tenth of a millimeter runout makes a lot of difference. The set I received are not even good enough for drilling at anything under Ø 3mm - there's enough runout to snap small bits when drilling in steel.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision You are right, of curse. I just checked the runout on my set. 40um was the max, which is fine for my needs. The bendiness of my machine is greater than that - I'm slowly tackling that and when I'm done I will probably invest in better collets.
Hello Sir, we are manufacturer for CNC machine tool accessories, just like collet, tool holder, vises, do you have any interests? If yes, kindly keep me posted: WhatsApp is +86 176 6371 9007, Email: zhjx03@pyzhjx.com
And that time has come. I can now cut steel and everything is very rigid. I find that I can adjust a bit by judicious tapping before the collet is fully tight to get the runout under 10um, but I am going to order a decent set.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision Put the camera down. Fumbling around with one hand while holding the camera with the other is idiotic at best. Plan ahead for your video! Know what you're going to do and how, before turning on the camera. If you need a tripod, get one first. Ad-lib by most people...SUCKS! You may have had some great information to convey, but I couldn't watch past 14 seconds.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision You don't have to be a videographer. Just get organized. It's just like doing an outline before writing a story, or term paper, or whatever. Know what you're going to do before turning on the camera.
I have not made any measurements myself, but what I have seen elsewhere, suggests that the advertised accuracies might be obtained by simply deburring the collet slots...
Damn, realised I hadn't replied to this. Yes, deburring helps a little. However, there are 2 problems with mine.
The first is the exterior dimensional accuracy of the collet itself. Several of them wouldn't even engage a collet nut, that's how bad they were.
The second is concentricity. The 3mm collet has a runout of 0.4mm next to the collet, and it gets significantly worse as you move away from the collet. That's after deburring...
The long and short of it is that you get very much what you pay for. I paid very little, and got mostly unusable junk. this is my fault, of course, and it's the continual question to be asked with low cost gear - how low can the cost go before the result is not fit for purpose? The Chinese, like the Japanese back in the 70s, are perfectly capable of producing high quality equipment at a very competitive cost - Shahe metrology gear is a very good example. But there is a barrier below which you simply can't expect something worth the time you spend taking it out of the packaging.
Anyway, thanks for the comment :)
Thank you for posting. I just ordered sets of ER 11, 20 and 32. The ER32 set was the more expensive. I need to check these before the return window closes.
For all those people who think that most economic collets with a run out of .02mm are crap.....all you are getting is a tool that has a rotating diam of + .04mm.......I've seen a lot of cheap CNC machines with spindles that run out more than that and if the CNC mill is not all that rigid the diam the tool cuts will be even bigger.
You can rightly criticise my filming technique, but at least get your content criticisms right. 0.02mm is the runout of the collet chuck (and most of that comes from the somewhat worn 8.2mm W20 collet I was gripping it with). If that was the order of magnitude of the error of the collets (which is, after all, what they were advertised as), that'd be OK for pretty much all usage, unless you're doing watchmaking stuff. That's *not* what I was getting from the collets, though. The 1/4" collet ran out .15mm, and the 5mm collet ran out over .25mm. The 2mm collet was kinda OK, same order of magnitude as the worn out swiss collet I compared it to. The 1mm collet ran out .23mm, nearly a quarter of its gripping diameter. The tolerances are totally hit and miss. That's not OK, that's shockingly awful.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision I can't comment on your testing methods but I have several sets of the "cheap" EBAY ER32, ER25 and ER11 collets and have not had any bother.....maybe you are looking for the cheapest of cheap.....you only get what you pay for in the end.......I have a manual mill and a CNC mill etc.
Did you also consider that if the collet closer nut runs out it's also a factor to consider.
Those small collets even suck as a paper weight. You should have bought bigger ones :)
If you can tell what's going on?
For heaven's sake, get a camera stand!
They are fine for 99% of woodworking jobs. I use these with no problem on my CNC. Not arse at all.
As long as you get a set that are good enough to fit your chuck, or your chuck has loose enough tolerances that way-out-of-spec collets will fit it, then yes, you can use them. For woodworking, I'm sure you'll be fine. However, for metal working (and you'll notice, perhaps, that my lathe is not a wood-wrangler's one, but a swiss precision bench lathe), a tenth of a millimeter runout makes a lot of difference. The set I received are not even good enough for drilling at anything under Ø 3mm - there's enough runout to snap small bits when drilling in steel.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision You are right, of curse. I just checked the runout on my set. 40um was the max, which is fine for my needs. The bendiness of my machine is greater than that - I'm slowly tackling that and when I'm done I will probably invest in better collets.
Hello Sir, we are manufacturer for CNC machine tool accessories, just like collet, tool holder, vises, do you have any interests? If yes, kindly keep me posted: WhatsApp is +86 176 6371 9007, Email: zhjx03@pyzhjx.com
And that time has come. I can now cut steel and everything is very rigid. I find that I can adjust a bit by judicious tapping before the collet is fully tight to get the runout under 10um, but I am going to order a decent set.
no link
say what, you say?
Como puedo conseguir Collin 1/4
My set came with 1/4 and 1/8 collets, but if you look around on aliexpress you can definitely get them separately or as part of imperial sets.
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The idiocy is too painful to watch further.
Please feel free to expand on this, I'm always willing to learn from an expert.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision Put the camera down. Fumbling around with one hand while holding the camera with the other is idiotic at best. Plan ahead for your video! Know what you're going to do and how, before turning on the camera. If you need a tripod, get one first. Ad-lib by most people...SUCKS! You may have had some great information to convey, but I couldn't watch past 14 seconds.
@@jimhal5553 Ah, just the filming, then. I'm no videographer, nor do I plan to be. Sorry if my incompetence offended you.
@@wibblywobblyidiotvision You don't have to be a videographer. Just get organized. It's just like doing an outline before writing a story, or term paper, or whatever. Know what you're going to do before turning on the camera.
Same here