5" 5C collet chuck recommendation

I'm not familiar with that particular machine but have you thought about the possibility of using a collet adaptor for your spindle taper to accept 5C collets?

You could make a hand wheel and tube to close the collets. In future you could even upgrade to a lever closer.

Its just a thought..
 
Bill Kahn said:
I am a beginner weekend hobbyist. Have been working to tolerances of like .005", but am not at .002". I have a PM1030V lathe (and a PM25 mill).

I have just ordered a set of 5C collets from PM. And want to order a collet chuck plain back for the lathe (I have the backing plate).

I see prices ranging from $130 ( https://www.amazon.com/iMeshbean-Co...id=1547686094&sr=8-5&keywords=5c+collet+chuck ) to $500+ ( https://www.travers.com/5c-collet-chuck-adapter-plates/p/80181/ ). I imagine something can be so cheap at to have way too much TIR. But also I don't need a Bison with .0004".

Can anyone suggest a specific brand/model number that is a a step above lousy? I think .001" TIR would be fine for my needs.

Climbing the cost ladder...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BOSTAR-Pla...h=item418a752ec1:g:qdgAAOSwEqVcMgmS:rk:6:pf:0

https://www.amazon.com/LLDSIMEX-126...id=1547686094&sr=8-7&keywords=5c+collet+chuck

https://www.amazon.com/AccusizeTools-Collet-Chuck-Machine-0269-0010/dp/B00U320MZ8?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2

I do know this matters as I got some super cheap drill chucks--which visually look fine, but have terrible run out.

Thanks.

-Bill
Click to expand...
If your lathe has a 1.5" spindle bore like the Shopmaster Turnado, then this style is very versatile and easy to use.

MACHINE and TOOLS

www.cnctoolexpress.com www.cnctoolexpress.com
 
Bill Kahn said:
I am a beginner weekend hobbyist. Have been working to tolerances of like .005", but am not at .002". I have a PM1030V lathe (and a PM25 mill).

I have just ordered a set of 5C collets from PM. And want to order a collet chuck plain back for the lathe (I have the backing plate).

I see prices ranging from $130 ( https://www.amazon.com/iMeshbean-Co...id=1547686094&sr=8-5&keywords=5c+collet+chuck ) to $500+ ( https://www.travers.com/5c-collet-chuck-adapter-plates/p/80181/ ). I imagine something can be so cheap at to have way too much TIR. But also I don't need a Bison with .0004".

Can anyone suggest a specific brand/model number that is a a step above lousy? I think .001" TIR would be fine for my needs.

Climbing the cost ladder...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BOSTAR-Pla...h=item418a752ec1:g:qdgAAOSwEqVcMgmS:rk:6:pf:0

https://www.amazon.com/LLDSIMEX-126...id=1547686094&sr=8-7&keywords=5c+collet+chuck

https://www.amazon.com/AccusizeTools-Collet-Chuck-Machine-0269-0010/dp/B00U320MZ8?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2

I do know this matters as I got some super cheap drill chucks--which visually look fine, but have terrible run out.

Thanks.

-Bill
Click to expand...
Just to finish off my decision here, I ordered the Bostar above. With a little bit of jiggling I got my backing plate to fit it pretty well (turned Dow to a few thou undersized, which allowed me to tap it a bit and get the run out to under .001–which is well below my typical precision), I am enjoying using collets—the process works much faster compared to the constant zeroing needed for every remount in a chuck. -Bill
 
Well, hate to dredge up an old thread, but this seemed like the most appropriate place to post this.

I bought one of the BOSTAR 5C collet chucks for my lathe with the D1-4 interface. I went with the BOSTAR because they were relatively inexpensive, and I figured any company that would put their name on a Chinese import would at least make sure that the merchandise wasn't besmirching their reputation due to lack of quality or by not matching the manufacturer advertised specs. Silly me.

The guy I have been conversing with when I found that the 0.0006 TIR was a fantasy, as I am getting more like 0.0065 TIR, has been good enough about it, and has offered to take back the chuck and the collets I bought from him without any hassles. He said he even spoke to the manufacturer and is supposed to get some sort of test jig from them, albeit not for a few months. He said he does not test them, just imports them and sells them. So much for my theory on a "name brand" being better than a no-name Chinese import. On the Ebay auction page for this item, he shows something like 1580 sales of this particular chuck, and has a 100% rating, so heck, I figured this was going to be a relatively safe bet of getting something decent. Again, silly me. I wasn't expecting perfection, just decent would have been perfectly fine for me.

Anyway, I took a video of my checking runout off of most of the surfaces, and tried the three different mounting position options offered by the D1-4 camlocks, all to no avail. If you look close, you can even see the wobble of the nose assembly itself. The inside surface of the nose for holding the collets was certainly no better.


The guy doesn't seem interested in me trying another one, so I am guessing he doesn't expect a replacement to do any better for me. I've been asking around to other suppliers and even had one tell me flat out NOT to buy the chuck from him, as he prefers to only deal with professional machinists. So I guess that his ad copy quoting a TIR of 0.0006 is just a pipe dream too, and the people buying such chucks need to fix them to bring them to that spec. So I guess "DIY to get 0.0006 TIR" would be a more accurate claim.

Ah well, only reason I wanted to buy this thing was to be able to use the 5C collets for square and hexagonal stock. I already have an ER40 collet setup for round stock, plus the regular 3 and 4 jaw chucks, so no big deal sending it all back, I guess. Just another "good idea" that went south on me.

IMHO.
 
That sucks but you're not the first I've heard that story from. Don't know what machine you have. You'd be better off buying pre-threaded tubing, make some spacer/shoulder rings to center the tube in your spindle, make a handle, and whatever collets you need. I found a cheap Hardinge 5C collet drawtube and make it work on my Grizzly G4003G. It just needed some spacer washers since it was a hair long and I made some spacers to center the tube in my spindle but it works fine.
 
You might want to look at this thread
www.hobby-machinist.com

RANT: 5C Collets Chuck, D1-4 Cam-Lock

I need a 5C collet chuck for an upcoming project so of course I went to Ebay to find something cheap. OK, I know that I’m not going to get Hardinge quality, but I expected that the specifications would be reasonably close to the real world. It’s my fault I guess, $260 was pretty cheap. I’m...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
 
I bought a set true type 5C chuck, D1-4, from PM 4 years ago. Very nicely made. It took me some time to carefully center the chuck using the 4 screws. but it runs very true now. My collets are also from PM and are quite good. My method of testing has some limitations since it only tests for runout near the collet. I used gage pins.
 
Tired&Retired said:
Well, hate to dredge up an old thread, but this seemed like the most appropriate place to post this.

I bought one of the BOSTAR 5C collet chucks for my lathe with the D1-4 interface. I went with the BOSTAR because they were relatively inexpensive, and I figured any company that would put their name on a Chinese import would at least make sure that the merchandise wasn't besmirching their reputation due to lack of quality or by not matching the manufacturer advertised specs. Silly me.

The guy I have been conversing with when I found that the 0.0006 TIR was a fantasy, as I am getting more like 0.0065 TIR, has been good enough about it, and has offered to take back the chuck and the collets I bought from him without any hassles. He said he even spoke to the manufacturer and is supposed to get some sort of test jig from them, albeit not for a few months. He said he does not test them, just imports them and sells them. So much for my theory on a "name brand" being better than a no-name Chinese import. On the Ebay auction page for this item, he shows something like 1580 sales of this particular chuck, and has a 100% rating, so heck, I figured this was going to be a relatively safe bet of getting something decent. Again, silly me. I wasn't expecting perfection, just decent would have been perfectly fine for me.

Anyway, I took a video of my checking runout off of most of the surfaces, and tried the three different mounting position options offered by the D1-4 camlocks, all to no avail. If you look close, you can even see the wobble of the nose assembly itself. The inside surface of the nose for holding the collets was certainly no better.


The guy doesn't seem interested in me trying another one, so I am guessing he doesn't expect a replacement to do any better for me. I've been asking around to other suppliers and even had one tell me flat out NOT to buy the chuck from him, as he prefers to only deal with professional machinists. So I guess that his ad copy quoting a TIR of 0.0006 is just a pipe dream too, and the people buying such chucks need to fix them to bring them to that spec. So I guess "DIY to get 0.0006 TIR" would be a more accurate claim.

Ah well, only reason I wanted to buy this thing was to be able to use the 5C collets for square and hexagonal stock. I already have an ER40 collet setup for round stock, plus the regular 3 and 4 jaw chucks, so no big deal sending it all back, I guess. Just another "good idea" that went south on me.

IMHO.
Click to expand...
I put a hexagon 5c holder(cost $30 for set ) in my 3 jaw chuck( which has about .0015" runout) and get about .003". https://www.ebay.com/itm/5C-COLLET-...561274?hash=item5b8a22d03a:g:4NMAAOSw-HlgOTG5 .
 
I tried taking a closer look at the 5C chuck today, trying a feeler gauge between the chuck itself and the backplate. Smallest feeler gauge I had was 0.0015" and that would not pass through the two faces. So it doesn't appear to be something simple like grit between the backplate and the chuck. Just for giggles I took a look at the face junction between the spindle and the backplate of the chuck, and there I saw daylight. I could fit a 0.004" feeler gauge easily, but the 0.005" was a NO-GO. I tried retightening the camlocks, and even removed the chuck and removed the camlock lugs on the backplate and raised and lowered them one turn, which just made the camlocks themselves not really lock up.

I took a look at the video I did again, and I was seeing just a hair under 0.001" at the edge of the backplate. I dunno, would 0.001" runout at the backplate equate to 0.0065" at the nose of the chuck? Looking again at the video, the runout gets progressively worse as I check along the length of the chuck. Is this the problem? The chuck backplate is just not registering against the surface of the spindle face causing the excessive runout?
 
I recently bought and installed a Bostar 5C collet chuck on my South Bend 10K. It has a threaded spindle so not a direct comparison. Nonetheless, the outside of the chuck was definitely not concentric but with a lot of care on making the backplate I managed to get .0003" concentricity on the taper against an advertised TIR of .0006"
Something I did was to lightly lap the face of the chuck so that there were no 'bulges' around the tapped mounting holes. I wonder if there's something like that going on with your chuck?
 
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