collets

[murphdog]

Any opinions on collets? ER, TG, Acura flex?? Currently using ER16, 32, & 40 stuff. Looking at larger collets in Cat 50 tooling. Just looking for thoughts.
Thanks
Murph

[txcncman]

What kinds of opinions are you looking for? Do you want to know if ER collets hold tools better than another style? Do you want suggested brands?

[murphdog]

ER 40 goes up to 1" I am considering a different style because of size. I can go to ER 50 and get up to 1.25" With the TG 150 or Acura Flex collets I can get to 1.5 & 1.625" respectively. What are the accuracy, holding power, availability pros & cons of the TG & Acura Flex vs the ER style. I am looking at Cat 50 tooling & larger collets than the ER 40.
Murph

[txcncman]

Accuracy will depend as much on brand as anything else. Holding power is adequate on all of them. Mind if I ask why not use end mill holders for larger tools? Are you spinning them so fast that 0.001-0.002" run out will be a factor?

[extanker59]

Be very carefull with purchased collets. be prepared to send the bad ones back. ER-16 and ER-11 collets that we've had are all over the place. We ended up getting some well known brand collets in the high precision category for 1/8" for our smaller tools.

I'm leaning toward telling you to avoid ER collets and go with the double angle ones. You'd need more collets (they don't cover the same range individually). But I can't prove that's the way to go. Not enough information on my part. Just had problems with Accupro and ETM ER-16 and -11 collets but didn't with Kennametal DA-180 collets.

[underthetire]

Cant beat the Rigo-Fix collets, especially in the ER series.

For larger 50 taper stuff, Milling chucks come in very handy.
Parlec : Power Milling Chucks