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extended range of ER collets

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uuu:
I've bought a set of the extended ER25 collets.  17,18,19 and 20mm.  I've not tested for runout - but now I have then I see how they work.  Each larger size is a little shorter than the previous one, so the skirt doesn't quite become a knife edge.

Depending on how long the taper is in each chuck, an oversize bar will enter the collet, but may not pass all the way through, as it may foul the chuck.  My lathe chuck will cleanly pass 17mm, and 18 only just, but 19 and 20 would have this limitation.

So, for example, to hold a 3/4" threaded end mill, I'd not get it far enough in to be clamping cleanly on the smooth bit.  And as the collet is quite short it will stick way out, I'd not trust it for full-fat milling.

Nevertheless, for the price I'm happy.  There will be one or two stubs of material that the collet will hold better than a three-jaw - and as noted, hex and square collet blocks will hold a bit more.

Wilf

PS - Talking of half-step collets - I have bought an imperial 1/8" ER25 collet.  It's much more secure than a 4mm one for the shanks of PCB cutters.

Jasonb:
I've got imperials for the common shank sizes in all my collets ER16, 25 and 32. The 1/8ths get used the most with spot drills, ctr drills & engraving cutters and the 1/2" for my edge finder. I Don't fnd myself using imperial shank cutters much these days.

Also got some half sizes in metric such as 2.5 3.5 and 4.5 which don't need closing down so much on 2.5mm, 3.3mm and 4.2mm tapping drills

Krypto:
I did some QC testing on the extended range ER-32 collets I purchased from the Aliexpress vendor E&Mill as mentioned by Zephyrin.  I was pleasantly surprised on how well they performed.

First off, the collets came individually boxed and packaged in a thick foam shipping package. The collets were clean with no chips, sharp edges or other problems.  They looked good.

The first pic shows were I turned down an aluminum bar between centers on the lathe. This way I could easily turn down the bar in increments and then test each collet. The bar was long enough to engage the entire collet and still have enough room on the outside for measuring. I started with a 1" scrap bar so I couldn't test the 26mm collet.

The second pic shows the test rig. A few weeks ago I bought a 5C Spin-indexer which now has the based milled down to use in the milling vise. It's for quick jobs when I don't want to break-out the 8" rotary table. I don't own any 5C collets and will always be using a 5C-ER32 adapter as shown.  From previous measurements, I'm getting around .0005" run-out with the Spin-indexer measured with a plug gauge in an ER-32 collet.  I don't consider that bad with using an adapter and plenty good for it's intended use.

Measurements were taken with the spindle locked and in quarters (0, 90, 180, 270) with the highest TIR recorded.

In the third pic shows the measurement of the 25mm collet at .0005" TIR. I expected more and since this sensitive .0001 indicator makes all my equipment look like junk I don't use it much, so I compared the readings with my front line .0005 test indicator. It was the same! Turns out this was actually the worst TIR of the bunch.

25mm collet.0005" TIR24mm collet.0004" TIR23mm collet.0002" TIR22mm collet.0003" TIR21mm collet.0003" TIR20mm collet.0002" TIR(From my original imported ER-32 collet set)3/4" collet.0003" TIR(Imported but sourced from industrial supplier Maritool)
Comments:

Yes, I use metric ER-32 collets even though I use the fractional system. I have some fractional collets in regular sizes.

A Spin-Indexer isn't the most precise thing in the world.  Even though I tried my best, there's going to be a few tenths of variance.

I was expecting out-of-spec sized collets to have more run-out, instead these seems to be at least as good as the ER-32 collets I've been using.

I'm impressed enough with these that I'm going to spin the wheel and buy a set of ER-11 collets from the same vendor, E&Mill, to replace the crap set I have now. I'll order them in a few weeks after the big new year holiday in China has calmed down.

Alex:
Anybody else tried ordering?

Ordered December 9th, still not arrived.

Until a day or two ago, "tracking" said that it was still in China, now Aliexpress has decided that it is complete and delivered.

I'm tempted to leave a "bad" review, but they may be fantastic.

Anyone else had 2+ month wait for delivery from Aliexpress?

Jo:
I use Aliexpress they are very good.

I get regular email updates, real-time tracking so I can see what is happening, warnings to check if the item has not arrived in time, plus reminders to check its progress and inform them if something is not as it seems and immediate refunds if the item is lost or fails to arrive.

I am a happy customer. 

Jo

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